UN: Millions are already Relying on Food Aid, World on Brink of `a Hunger Pandemic’

World | April 22, 2020, Wednesday // 11:56
Bulgaria: UN: Millions are already Relying on Food Aid, World on Brink of `a Hunger Pandemic’ www.pixabay.com

Millions around the world are already relying heavily on food aid to survive, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

David Beasley, head of the (WFP), said urgent action was needed to avoid a worldwide catastrophe.

The report estimates that the number of people starving could almost double - from 135 million to more than 250 million.

The citizens of 10 countries most affected by conflict, the economic crisis and climate change are most at risk, WFP says.

The Fourth Annual Global Report on Food Crisis lists Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and Haiti as the most threatened.

Speaking to the UN Security Council during a video conference, David Beasley said the world must "act reasonably and swiftly".

Beasley said today 821 million people go to bed hungry every night all over the world, a further 135 million people are facing “crisis levels of hunger or worse,” and a new World Food Program analysis shows that as a result of COVID-19 an additional 130 million people “could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020.”

He said in the video briefing that WFP is providing food to nearly 100 million people on any given day, including “about 30 million people who literally depend on us to stay alive.”

Beasley, who is recovering from COVID-19, said if those 30 million people can’t be reached, “our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period” — and that doesn’t include increased starvation due to the coronavirus.

“In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation,” he said, quoted by The Seattle Times.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

World » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: UN, hunger, pandemic

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria