The number of people at risk of starvation has increased sixfold since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and 11 people are at risk of starvation every minute, which is more than the current global death rate from the coronavirus, according to a report by the NGO Oxfam published on Friday 9 July.
The report says that conflict remains the main cause of hunger since the pandemic, pushing more than 500,000 people to the brink of starvation - six times more than in 2020. Despite the pandemic, global military spending has increased by USD 51 billion - six and a half times what the UN needs to end the famine.
155 million people around the world are now food insecure - 20 million more than last year.
Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen have experienced an increase in extreme levels of hunger since 2020.
The report also describes the massive impact of the economic shocks, compounded by the pandemic, and the worsening climate crisis which is pushing tens of millions more people into hunger. Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40% rise in world food prices, the highest in over a decade.
See the report: https://bit.ly/3qYmraR (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)