Radio host and US Army combat veteran Brian Suits joins ‘Kennedy’ to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and the latest aid package.
A new one United Nations A report released on Wednesday outlined grim statistics on global hunger levels, showing that billions of people face food insecurity or are on the brink of starvation.
Statement, “Food security and nutrition status in the worldGlobal hunger increased in 2021, with an estimated 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe hardship. The number facing severe food insecurity has increased to about 924 million.
FILE: Sergey, 11, waits to receive a food donation during a humanitarian aid distribution in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kiev, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenati, File / AP Newsroom)
World Food Programme, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, UN. The report, released by Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, says the 2021 figures show “the world is moving backwards in efforts to end hunger, food, food, etc.” Insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms.”
The heads of the five agencies said in the report that food prices are rising as supply chains are disrupted by the war in Ukraine, and frequent and extreme weather events are causing supply problems, particularly in low-income countries.
UN chief says global food shortages a ‘catastrophe’
The report says Hunger in Africa has continued to rise over the past yearAsia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, but at a slower pace from 2019 to 2020.
“In 2021, hunger affected 278 million people in Africa, 425 million people in Asia, and 56.5 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean,” it said.
David Beasley, head of the UN’s World Food Programme, said the analysis showed that “a record 345 million acutely hungry people are on the brink of starvation” – a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine. The number was 135 million before the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
A woman passes sacks of wheat flour at the Hamar-Wain market in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, Thursday, May 26, 2022. (AP Newsroom)
“There is a real risk that it will rise even more in the coming months,” he said. “Even more worrying is that if this group breaks, 50 million people in 45 countries are one step away from famine.”
“Undernutrition” — when food intake is insufficient to maintain an active and healthy life — is used to measure hunger, and it continues to rise in 2021. The report estimates that 828 million people faced hunger last year.
Before the war, Ukraine and Russia together accounted for nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports and half of its sunflower oil. Russia and its ally Belarus, meanwhile, are the world’s No. 1 producers of potash, a key ingredient in fertilizer. 2 and 3 are at No.
Beasley called for an urgent political solution that would allow Ukrainian wheat and grain to re-enter world markets.
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The United Nations’ development goals call for ending extreme poverty and zero hunger by 2030, but projections suggest that 8% of the world’s population – nearly 670 million people – will face hunger by the end of the decade. The targets are the same number of people adopted in 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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