The UN has warned that conflict and extreme weather conditions are worsening food insecurity in several regions. Humanitarian action is urgent to prevent hunger and deaths, especially in Gaza and Sudan.
The UN food agencies warned this Thursday of the possible worsening of hunger over the next seven months in many parts of the world, with Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti being the most worrying.
In a biannual report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said conflict and armed violence are responsible for most acute food insecurity in the regions analyzed.
Toward extreme weather conditionss are an important factor in other regions, while Economic inequality and high levels of debt. In many developing countries, they undermine the ability of governments to respond.
Urgent humanitarian action is needed to prevent hunger and death in the Gaza Strip, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti and Mali.asked the FAO and the WFP, according to the French agency AFP.
“In the absence of immediate humanitarian efforts and concerted international action to remedy serious access difficulties and reduce conflict and insecurity, hunger and loss of life could worsen” in these regions, they warned.
Nigeria, Chad, Yemen, Mozambique, Myanmar (formerly Burma)Syria and Lebanon They are also in a very worrying situation.
The joint report, based on research carried out by experts from the two Rome-based UN agencies, covers the period from November 2024 to May 2025.
The report focuses on “the most serious situations” and does not represent “all countries/territories experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity,” the authors said.
The year 2024 is the second consecutive year of declining humanitarian aid funding and 12 food security schemes have faced funding drops of more than 75% in countries including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria and Myanmar.
Levels of food insecurity are measured on a scale from 1 to 5, the latter corresponding to a “catastrophe” situation.
In the Gaza Strip, the recent escalation of hostilities between Palestinians and Israelis raises fears that a catastrophic famine scenario could become a reality, according to the two agencies.
As of mid-October, 1.9 million people, corresponding to 91% of Gaza’s population, were displaced.
In Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict will continue to go hungry.
In South Sudan, the number of people facing hunger and death is expected to have almost doubled between April and July 2024, compared to the same period in 2023.
These figures could worsen from May 2025, with the period that follows and precedes two harvests.
According to FAO and WFP, more than one million people were affected by severe flooding in October in South Sudan, a chronically unstable country plagued by violence and economic stagnation.
HE armed violence in Haiticombined with a Persistent economic crisis and hurricanes.is likely to worsen already critical hunger levels.
The escalation of the conflict in Mali, where the UN withdrew the peacekeeping mission in 2023, risks worsening already critical levels, with armed groups imposing roadblocks and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The direct and indirect effects of conflict on food insecurity are considerable, according to the report’s authors, and go far beyond the destruction of livestock and crops.
Conflicts force people to flee their homes, “disrupting livelihoods and incomes, limiting access to markets and causing price fluctuations and irregular food production and consumption.”
In some regions, extreme weather conditions caused by the possible reappearance this winter of La Niña, a natural climate phenomenon that can trigger intense rains or worsen droughts and heat waves, could exacerbate food crises, according to FAO and WFP.
Source: Observadora
