The World Food Program warned in a previous report that “the world is facing a hunger crisis on an unprecedented scale, and an unprecedented rise in prices,” which was confirmed by International Monetary Fund figures, on Monday.
According to analysts, Arab and African food security will gradually worsen due to the crisis in the world’s supply chains, the increase in food prices, as well as climatic changes that affect crops, especially in the brown continent.
shocking numbers
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva revealed during a press conference Monday that:
- 14 million people in the Arab world are vulnerable to food insecurity.
- 48 countries exposed to the repercussions of the global food crisis.
- Of the 48 countries, about 10 to 20 are likely to request (emergency aid), many of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Basic foodstuffs such as wheat, rice and lentils are at risk of inaccessibility by food-poor communities.
food shocks
The IMF on Friday approved a new borrowing window to deal with food shocks under existing emergency financing instruments to help vulnerable countries deal with food shortages and rising costs caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The IMF will join the call for a fight against food trade restrictions to ease the situation and plans to fund the new borrowing window using last year’s SDR allocation.
Countries in the Middle East and abroad have intervened to support countries facing high rates of food inflation and shortages that have exacerbated as a result of global geopolitical developments and the increasing risks of a global recession.
catastrophic famine
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program sounded the alarm of a catastrophic famine that threatens many countries as a result of economic and climate crises.
- The United Nations has warned that nearly one million people in the world – Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen – are threatened with a “catastrophic famine”.
- They may die in the coming months in the absence of humanitarian aid.
- This reflects the status of 19 countries considered “hot spots” for hunger in the world, six of which have been placed on “high alert” by the United Nations (Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen).
- In these six countries, 970,000 people will be met by January 2023.
- These estimates are ten times higher than they were six years ago under the impact of conflict, climate change and economic instability exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and the fallout from the crisis in Ukraine.
- In the absence of adequate humanitarian aid, four children or adults out of 10,000 people are expected to die every day in Somalia by December.
Corona, war and climate
And on the importance of the food security file, the Italian economic analyst, George Adamund, told Sky News Arabia that the issue of food security “has become the first file on the table of all countries of the world in light of the crises that are exacerbating as they have direct effects on the economic and social conditions. This is accompanied by instability, tensions, and sometimes mass migration.
“The number of people facing acute food insecurity is expected to continue to rise dramatically, as the Ukrainian war has exacerbated food and energy crises, which may have devastating effects on fragile economies in parallel with the climate crisis and the natural disasters it has caused, especially drought,” Adamund added.
He pointed out that Russia and Ukraine “export about a third of the global wheat trade, and the current disruptions in production and export affect the food security of millions of people who are already suffering from food price inflation in their countries and high prices with the Corona pandemic and its repercussions.”
And he indicated that what made all these crises float at once and people feel that there is a crisis as a result of the Ukraine war is that it “came while the world was not recovering from the pandemic and the economic slowdown it caused, in addition to the severe climatic changes that affected agricultural production, especially in Africa.”
#numbers #triad #war #corona #climate #affect #Arab #African #food #security