Today, one billion people are suffering from starvation, more than two billion people are severely food insecure, 45 million are in the grip of starvation to death.
900 million people go to bed on an empty stomach. Women and children are more vulnerable to hunger. Six million children die annually from lack of food, at least 15 thousand every day.
An estimated 50 million children under the age of five suffer from hunger, and 150 million face inadequate growth due to chronic deficiency of essential nutrients.
According to the UN reports Almost 3.5 billion people could not afford a healthy diet, reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices and outbreak of the pandemic also increased this dire situation. As can be seen, humanity is on the verge of a tragic survival problem that is difficult to overcome easily.
Famine
Africa, and especially the Horn of Africa region is the most affected by famine and food insecurity due to unprecedented drought, violent conflicts and epidemics. Famine is an extreme deprivation of food that results in mass mortality due to starvation or hunger-induced diseases. It is usually caused by a combination of factors, such as conflicts, climate change, poverty, inequality, and lack of humanitarian access.
South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kongo are already experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 7.5 million children under five of this region are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
To prevent famine and save lives, the UN and its partners are calling for urgent action and support from the international community, as well as the governments and parties involved in the conflicts.
Actually, it should be borne in mind that famine is not the only challenge that African countries face.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) is the largest humanitarian agency in providing food and nutrition assistance to people in need, but it faces funding shortfalls and access challenges in many areas.
The WFP stated that the danger of famine is very high, especially in South Sudan, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Haiti and Syria.
Urgent action is needed to prevent starvation, death, and the total collapse of livelihoods in these areas.
The international community and humanitarian organizations are trying to prevent the famine from spreading and save lives, but they face many challenges, such as insecurity, violence, access restrictions, funding gaps, and logistical constraints. The danger is the global hunger curve has been climbing again since 2014 and the pandemic has made this situation even worse.
Waste
Experts point out that enough food is produced every year to feed the entire world population.
They propose that famine and hunger, which have reached frightening figures for the future of humanity, can be overcome with serious production-consumption planning and prevention of waste.
One third of the food produced in the world every year is wasted. The food wasted in the United States alone is equal to the total food produced by starving African countries.
In this context, all countries, rich and poor, should be expected to take responsibility in solidarity against this global problem whose outcome is unpredictable.
It should not be forgotten that hunger and famine are not only a food sharing problem, but also a problem of human rights, justice and solidarity.
