Acute food insecurity is expected to rise in magnitude and severity in 18 hunger “hotspots,” including Nigeria.
This was revealed in a recent report from the United Nations.
The report underlined the urgent need for aid to prevent famine in Gaza and Sudan, as well as the escalating food crises in Haiti, Mali, and South Sudan.
It also cautions about the ongoing consequences of El Niño and the looming risk of La Niña, which might cause extreme climatic events that affect lives and livelihoods.
It stated, “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 in the list of hunger hotspots, where acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further during the outlook period,” the report revealed.
The report also claimed that multiple hotspots were dealing with rising hunger crises, underscoring the serious compounding effect of concurrent and overlapping shocks on acute food shortages.
It emphasised that conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks were consistently driving vulnerable households into food crises.
The report noted that 2023 could be the first year since 2010 to experience a reduction in humanitarian funding compared to the previous year, despite being the second highest level of investment ever for humanitarian assistance.
“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.
“Acting ahead of crises can save lives, reduce food shortages, and protect livelihoods at a much lower cost than a not-timely humanitarian response,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said.
The WFP Executive Director, Cindy McCain On his part, he 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.
“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.”
According to the report, the continued conflict in Palestine is anticipated to increase the already disastrous levels of acute hunger.
Starvation and death have already occurred, along with an enormous death toll, catastrophic destruction, and the displacement of practically the entire Gaza Strip’s population.
