Published 17:39 IST, April 22nd 2020
UN agency warns of multiple famines of ‘biblical proportions’ due to COVID-19 outbreak
UN food relief agency warned that the world could witness multiple famines of “biblical proportion” within a few months if nations don’t prepare and act now.
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The United Nations’ food relief agency warned that the world could witness multiple famines of “biblical proportion” within a few months if nations don’t prepare and act now. Addressing a virtual session of the UN Security Council on April 21, World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley said that the world is on the verge of a hunger pandemic due to coronavirus outbreak.
“Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but I’d like to lay out for you very clearly what the world is facing at this very moment. At the same time, while dealing with a COVID-19 pandemic, we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic,” said Beasley in his early remark.
Worst humanitarian crisis
The WFP Executive Director said that he has been warning the world leaders for several months about the looming threat of the worst humanitarian crisis, for a number of reasons, since World War II. Beasley added that many countries were already struggling from civil wars, desert locust swarms, and frequent natural disasters and the health crisis has now aggravated the earlier issues.
We are facing a hunger pandemic @WFPchief David Beasley tells @UN Security Council.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) April 21, 2020
It is critical we come together as one united global community to defeat this disease and protect the most vulnerable nations and communities from #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/1TMBGbQxNv
Referring to the new Global Report on Food Crisis, the UN official said that 135 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse in addition to the 821 million people who go to bed hungry every night all over the world. According to the WFP analysis, an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020, taking the total to 265 million.
“In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation,” said Beasley.
17:39 IST, April 22nd 2020