Millions More Hungry In 2017 Amid Famine, Conflict, And Numbers Rising-Report

Reuters - Thin Lei Win

"We are clearly seeing a trend now, from 80 million to 108 million, from 108 to 124 million, people literally marching to the brink of starvation around the world"

An internally displaced woman sits with her severely acute malnourished children as they wait to receive medical attention at the Tshiamala general referral hospital of Mwene Ditu in Kasai Oriental Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, March 15, 2018. Picture taken March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

ROME - Conflicts and climate disasters, particularly drought, drove the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger up by about 15 percent last year and the situation is getting worse, a report said on Thursday.
Last year 124 million people in 51 countries faced crisis levels of hunger compared to 108 million people in 48 countries in 2016 and 80 million in 2015, according to the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).
The FSIN is a global project set up to strengthen food and nutrition security information systems that is sponsored by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme and the International Food Policy Research Institute.
"We are clearly seeing a trend now, from 80 million to 108 million, from 108 to 124 million, people literally marching to the brink of starvation around the world," said David Beasley, WFP's executive director.
"We will never address the issues of the day until we end some of these conflicts," he added at the report's launch.
The FSIN report said the rising numbers in 2017 were largely due to new or intensified conflicts in Myanmar, north-east Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Yemen.
In 2018, "conflict will remain a primary driver of food security", it said, while severe dry weather is expected to affect crop and livestock production and worsen hunger in many parts of Africa.
Yemen, where a proxy wdroughteport said.
It also singled out Eritrea, North Korea and Venezuela as places of concern but said a lack of data made it difficult to estimate the number of people left hungry.
The analysis showed the situation could worsen in 2018 in at least three or four countries, Luca Russo, senior food crises analyst at the FAO, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The FSIN uses a five phase scale with the third level classified as crisis, fourth as emergency and fifth as famine/catastrophe.
"In South Sudan, we all applaud ourselves because we avoided famine last year, but the figures today tell us we might have famine in South Sudan in the next few months and this can also apply to other countries," Russo said.

Links

• Global Report On Food Crises 2018 (pdf)
• Climate Change: A Catalyst For Conflict
• Shaping Conflict In The 21st Century—The Future Of Food And Water Security
• The World’s Poorest Most at Risk From Drought, Conflict
• Quarter Of Land Will Be Drier Under 2C Warming: Study
• Climate Change Will Almost Certainly Heat The World So Much It Can Never Recover, Major Study Finds
• Antarctic Ice Shows Australia’s Drought And Flood Risk Is Worse Than Thought
• As Donald Trump Denies Climate Change, These Kids Die Of It