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UN: 258 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022
More than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday.
The Global Report on Food Crises, an alliance of humanitarian organizations founded by the U.N. and European Union, said people faced starvation and death in seven of those countries: Somalia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
The report found that that the number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food aid — 258 million — had increased for the fourth consecutive year, a “stinging indictment of humanity’s failure” to implement U.N. goals to end world hunger, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said.
While the increase last year was due in part to more populations being analyzed, the report also found that the severity of the problem increased as well, “highlighting a concerning trend of a deterioration.”
Rein Paulsen, director of emergencies and resilience for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said an interplay of causes was driving hunger. They include conflicts, climate shocks, the impact of the pandemic and consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine that has had an impact on the global trade in fertilizers, wheat, maize and sunflower oil, The Associated Press reported.
The impact has been most acute on the poorest countries that are dependent on food imports. “Prices have increased (and) those countries have been adversely affected,” Paulsen said.
He called for a “paradigm shift” so that more funding is spent investing in agricultural interventions that anticipate food crises and aim to prevent them.
“The challenge that we have is the disequilibrium, the mismatch that exists between the amount of funding money that’s given, what that funding is spent on, and the types of interventions that are required to make a change,” he said.
The U.N. World Food Program’s new chief issued a warning that the Rome-based agency’s resources to provide food aid amid the surging needs are “running dangerously low.” Executive Director Cindy McCain told panelists at an event to present the report that the agency could be forced to make “heart-breaking decisions to slash” assistance if substantial new funding doesn’t materialize quickly.
McCain noted that she had just returned from Somalia, where, she said, “millions are teetering on the edge of hunger and catastrophe.” She also said: “We all know it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.
The EU’s commissioner for international partnership, Jutta Urpilainen, said that the bloc’s strategy to fight hunger includes supporting initiatives aimed to “boost local production and reduce dependence on unsustainable imports.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan on Thursday rejected the statements of the Islamic Emirate regarding the use of Pakistan’s soil against Afghanistan by Daesh, calling the remarks as “unwarranted and irresponsible.”
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a press conference that instead of such statements, the Afghan authorities should take effective action against all terror groups, based in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the Pakistan Army claimed that last month’s suicide attack that killed five Chinese nationals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been planned in Afghanistan and had been carried out by an Afghan.
In reaction, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, Inayatullah Khwarazmi, said that in an area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is under the security of the Pakistan Army, the killing of Chinese nationals is either the weakness of the security institutions or their cooperation with the attackers.
He also said: “We have cases where the Daesh entered Afghanistan from Pakistan, and Pakistani soil was used against our soil, and the attacks are planned in that country.”
Pakistan has repeatedly claimed that Afghan soil is being used in attacks against Pakistan, but this was the first time the Islamic Emirate accused Pakistan of not preventing Daesh from entering Afghanistan.
Acting Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani has said in a meeting with the European Union envoy in Kabul that Afghans will have a good future in peace and under the shadow of the Islamic system.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Interior on Friday, Haqqani, in his meeting with Raffaella Iodice, the European Union’s Chargé d’affaires to Afghanistan, said that Afghans will work hard, endure hardships and will be on the path of progress.
The EU envoy expressed her hope for continued peace and a better future for Afghans, according to the statement.
Mawlavi Abdul Kabir, the political deputy prime minister, urged Panjshir residents to encourage their sons living in neighboring countries to return home as the Islamic Emirate has no enmity with anyone.
At a gathering in Panjshir, attended by senior IEA officials, Kabir said that there is currently no space for ethnic and linguistic discrimination as well as hypocrisy in Afghanistan.
He stressed that all Afghans should work together for the construction, development and prosperity of the country.
According to him, IEA’s political and commercial relations with the world are secure and the government is committed to the development and reconstruction of Afghanistan and is doing its best to gain self-sufficiency.
At this gathering, the IEA’s minister of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, said that illegal acts in the country have reached zero and that Daesh does not exist in the country. He also said the people of Panjshir will not be deceived by biased people.
“Currently, there is no corruptor and there is no Daesh fighter in Afghanistan, and no one can provide proof [of their existence]. We are one nation. Our religion and beliefs are one,” said Hanafi.
Some residents of Panjshir also said that they support the Islamic Emirate and will share their challenges with the authorities.
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