193M People Worldwide To Suffer Acute Food Insecurity

Around 193 million people worldwide experienced acute food insecurity in 2021, a new high, with Russia's war in Ukraine expected to aggravate the situation, a report by international humanitarian and development groups said, Kyodo News reported.

Photo Insert: Around 139 million people in 24 countries and territories experienced acute food insecurity mainly due to conflicts.

Calling for urgent international assistance, the annual Global Report on Food Crises, released May 4, looked at 53 countries and territories. The main drivers were conflicts, weather extremes, and macroeconomic shocks, mainly caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of people whose lives or livelihoods were in immediate danger due to inadequate food soared by 25 percent or nearly 40 million since 2020, the last record high year. The Global Network Against Food Crises has compiled the data since 2016.

In 2021, 570,000 people required urgent action to prevent the widespread collapse of livelihoods, starvation, and death in four countries -- Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen and Madagascar -- according to the group, which includes the European Union and the UN World Food Program.

Around 139 million people in 24 countries and territories experienced acute food insecurity mainly due to conflicts. Weather extremes and economic shocks were the next main drivers for others, the analysis showed.

Almost 70 percent of the total number was concentrated in 10 countries and territories, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. Looking toward 2022, the report expects Russia's war against Ukraine, launched in February, to exacerbate global food insecurity, with at least around 180 million people in 42 countries and territories expected to suffer an acute food crisis.

The war, especially if protracted, would compound the difficulties of some countries in dealing with food crises because of "their high dependency on imports of food, fuel and agricultural inputs and/or vulnerability to global food price shocks."

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