Topic: Famine

As risks of conflict-induced famine and widespread food insecurity continue to rise, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator urged the Security Council on Thursday to address the interlinked crises, and work towards establishing lasting peace in affected regions.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Monday that the number of people teetering on the edge of famine in 43 countries, has risen to 45 million - up by three million this year - as acute hunger spikes around the world.

Of grave concern are 23 ‘hunger hotspots’ which over the next four months are expected to face an acute level of food insecurity due to the combined economic repercussions of COVID-19, the climate crisis, and fighting.

Famine is already on the doorstep of millions of families in 20 countries, two UN agencies warned on Tuesday in a report that calls for urgent action to avert rising hunger due to factors such as conflict, climate extremes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Top officials at the United Nations on Thursday urged U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to reverse his plan to designate the Houthis in Yemen as a foreign terrorist organization, warning that if the Trump administration's policy goes into effect, it would push the nation into a "catastrophic" famine—worse than any seen in the past four decades—that could leave hundreds of thousands or even millions of innocent people dead.

More than 10 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2021, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday, warning that without urgent action, the numbers could rise further.