Gilbert Ekubé
A joint United Nations (UN) report said the food crisis has tightened its grip on Nigeria and 18 other countries, adding that the number of others facing an acute lack of food confidence around the world is expected to continue to rise precipitously.
According to the report received from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the critical points of famine are due to emerging conflicts, excessive weather and economic instability, aggravated by the pandemic and the domino effect of the crisis in Ukraine.
It was then that African leaders and governments in Europe, Asia and the Americas pledged to eliminate global famine while expressing fear over the looming lack of food confidence and the unfolding nutrition crisis around the world.
According to them, efforts are underway through governments around the world to act “urgently, on a large scale and in concert” to respond to the existing lack of food confidence and nutrition crisis.
THISDAY had reported that Nigeria joined 22 other countries last year, but this shows that Nigeria has done little or nothing to break out of the chains of hunger.
The report adds that Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen remain on “high alert” as hotspots, representing nearly one million people facing catastrophic levels of starvation (IPC Phase Five “Catastrophe”) with starvation and death. . A truth where excessive degrees of mortality and malnutrition can occur without prompt action.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, the Sahel, Sudan and Syria are “very worrying” with deteriorating situations – as in the June edition of the quarterly report – but the alert is extended to the Central African Republic and Pakistan. Meanwhile, Guatemala, Honduras and Malawi have been added to the list of countries, joining Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, which are hunger hotspots.
He added that violent clashes were again the main driving force of acute hunger, with research indicating a continuation of this trend in 2022, with specific fears for Ethiopia, where the intensification of clashes and inter-ethnic violence in several regions is expected to increase further. Expanding humanitarian needs.
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said severe drought in the Horn of Africa has pushed others to the brink of famine, destroying crops and killing livestock on which their survival depends, and warned that acute lack of food confidence is expanding. and spreading across the globe.
He noted that other people in poorer countries in particular who have not yet recovered from the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic are suffering the consequences of ongoing conflicts, in terms of prices, food and fertilizer supplies, as well as the climate emergency.
“Without a massive humanitarian backlash that relies heavily on urgent and vital agricultural assistance, the scenario is likely to worsen in many countries in the coming months,” the FAO Director-General said.
The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Mr. David Beasley, said that other people affected by the current crisis also face sky-high food costs and incredibly limited opportunities to earn a living as a result of the pandemic.
“We urgently want those who are in grave danger of famine in Somalia and other hunger hotspots around the world,” he said.
In a statement received from the website of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the leaders, representing the African Union, the European Union, the United States, Spain, Colombia, Germany, Indonesia and Nigeria, issued a joint statement at the World Summit on Food Security affirming their commitment.
They also added that leaders noted that overcoming the global food mistrust would require cutting-edge partnerships involving a wide diversity of key actors in the global community.
The event, which took place on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly consultation that just ended in New York, prompted Senegalese President Macky Sall, chair of the African Union, to say that around 800 million people are suffering lately. of hunger, an increase of 150 million since the start of Covid-19, according to FAO report
“When a crisis of this magnitude hits the world, each and every country suffers. The scenario has worsened due to the war in Ukraine, which has led to a sharp rise in food and fertilizer prices,” he added.
He warned that he opposes enforcing industry restrictions and stressed that countries will have to work together to create certain open and transparent markets for grains and fertilizers so that all countries have access to grains and fertilizers according to foreign industry rules.
Sall praised the AfDB for temporarily launching its $1. 5 billion Emergency African Food Production Fund to avert an impending food crisis, noting that the multilateral organization’s center will facilitate the production of 38 million tons of food, representing a backlog of $12 billion in production in just two years.
As of July 2022, the Bank’s Board of Directors approved cumulative blended financing of $1130 million for 24 African countries of the Fund.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on governments, the private sector, the think tank and civil society to join the Global Alliance for Food Security, an initiative launched by the world’s most evolved economies (G7) and the World Bank in May.
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