UN bodies warn against acute hunger in DRC, South Sudan, Nigeria

A new report released in Rome today (March 22) has warned against surging levels of acute hunger, attributed to conflicts mainly in several African countries, and prolonged drought.

"The increase is largely attributable to new or intensified conflict and insecurity in Myanmar, north-east Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and Yemen," The Global Report on Food Crises said.

Produced each year by a group of international humanitarian partners, the report was presented by the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) at a briefing for UN member nations in Rome, a press release has said. 

The report also cites prolonged drought conditions resulting in consecutive poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition in eastern and southern Africa.

Conflict, the report said, will likely remain a major driver of food crises in 2018, affecting Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen as well as Libya and the central Sahel (Mali and Niger).

Yemen will mostly likely continue to be the largest food crisis by far, it said adding that the situation there is expected to deteriorate, particularly because of restricted access, economic collapse and outbreaks of disease.

Meanwhile, the impact of severe dry weather on crop and livestock production is likely to heighten food insecurity in pastoral areas of Somalia, south-eastern Ethiopia and eastern Kenya, and in West African and Sahel countries including Senegal, Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, the release said.

Some 124 million people in 51 countries were affected by acute food insecurity during 2017 — 11 million more people than the year before — according to the report.

It defines acute food insecurity as hunger so severe that it poses an immediate threat to lives or livelihoods.

It finds that food crisis are increasingly determined by complex causes such as conflict, extreme climatic shocks and high prices of staple food often acting at the same time.

The situation revealed by the Global Report highlights the urgent need for simultaneous action to save lives, livelihoods and to address the root causes of food crises, the partners said. 

The Global Report on Food Crises brings together regional and national data and analysis from multiple sources into one document to provide a clear comprehensive picture of food crises and acute food insecurity in affected countries. 

The Global Network against Food Crises launched by the European Union, FAO and WFP at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 is expected to increasingly become the engine behind the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, promoting increased coordination between humanitarian and development agencies.