There are 734 million people going hungry around the world, 122 million more than in 2019, according to newly released UN figures for 2022.
Launched last week by agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme (WFP), ‘The State of Food and Nutrition in the World 2023’ (SOFI) report estimates 29.6 percent of the world’s population, around 2.4 billion people, had restricted access to food last year.
This includes around 900 million people facing severe food insecurity amid worsening and intersecting crises.
“The populations we serve are constantly being put under increased pressure,” said Michael Dunford, WFP’s Regional Director for East Africa. “(Conflict in) Sudan is coming at the worst possible time and, unfortunately, it has potentially regional implications. We’re already seeing considerable movements of populations out into Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Egypt.”
The SOFI report charts a worrying ‘megatrend’ of urbanization, accompanied by a rise in urban hunger as more and more people flock to cities in search of a better life.
More than a million people have been forced to leave their homes in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone since January, bringing to 5.5 million the total number of internally displaced people in the region.
With a recent influx of 800,000 people into Goma, a city of 1.2 million people, “You are actually uprooting basic social structures in every form and manner,” said Peter Musoko, WFP Country Director for DRC. The World Health Organization has warned of a total breakdown of health services, landing people in the jaws of disease and malnutrition.
Source: wfp.org
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