By Tolúlopé Olátúnjí
A recent report by the United Nations has lamented that acute food insecurity is expected to worsen in both magnitude and severity across eighteen (18) hunger “hotspots,” including Nigeria.
The UN report also highlighted an urgent need for assistance to prevent famine in Gaza and Sudan and to address the worsening hunger crises in Haiti, Mali, and South Sudan.
It also warned of the continued effects of El Niño and the impending risk of La Niña, which could lead to extreme climate events and disruption of lives and livelihoods.
“Since the previous edition of the Hunger Hotspots report (October 2023), the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Zambia have joined Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Somalia, and Zimbabwe on the list of hunger hotspots, where acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further during the outlook period,” the report stated.
The report emphasized that numerous hotspots are grappling with escalating hunger crises, exacerbated by simultaneous and overlapping shocks. It pointed out that conflict, climate extremes, and economic disruptions are persistently pushing vulnerable households into food crises.
Additionally, the UN cautioned that 2023 could potentially be the first year since 2010 to see a decrease in humanitarian funding compared to the previous year, although it still represents the second highest level of funding ever for humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Qu Dongyu emphasized that the report’s alarming prospects should prompt proactive measures, prevention, and resilience building to support vulnerable communities.
Dongyu stated:”The daunting prospects highlighted in this report should serve as a wake-up call to all of us. We need to spearhead the shift from responding to crises after they occur to more proactive anticipatory approaches, prevention, and resilience building to help vulnerable communities cope with upcoming shocks,”
However, the Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy Lou McCain stressed the urgency of acting before crises reach catastrophic levels.
The WFP chief said:”Once a famine is declared, it is too late – many people will have already starved to death. In Somalia in 2011, half of a quarter of a million people who died of hunger perished before famine was officially declared.
“The world failed to heed the warnings at the time, and the repercussions were catastrophic. We must learn the lesson and act now to stop these hotspots from igniting a firestorm of hunger,” McCain said.
She further added, “We have proven solutions to stop these crises in their tracks, but we need the resources and the political will to implement them at scale before more lives are lost.”
The report also noted that ongoing conflict in Palestine is expected to further exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of acute hunger.
