The UN food chief has warned that the world is facing “a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude”. David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, said the 345 million people facing acute food insecurity in the 82 countries where the agency operates is two-and-a-half times the number of acutely food insecure people before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
He told the UN Security Council it is incredibly troubling that 50 million of those people in 45 countries are suffering from very acute malnutrition and are “knocking on famine’s door”. “What was a wave of hunger is now a tsunami of hunger,” he said, pointing to rising conflict, the pandemic’s economic ripple effects, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24, Mr Beasley said, soaring food, fuel and fertiliser costs have driven 70 million people closer to starvation. Despite the agreement in July allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped from three Black Sea ports that had been blockaded by Russia and continuing efforts to get Russian fertiliser back to global markets, “there is a real and dangerous risk of multiple famines this year”, he said.
