More than 28 crore people victims of starvation in 2023, Gaza most affected: Report

Food insecurity worsened worldwide in 2023, with more than 280 million people suffering from hunger, particularly due to conflicts in Gaza and Sudan. This information was given by United Nations agencies and development groups. According to the latest global report on food crises from the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), the number of people facing severe food insecurity due to weather events and economic shocks is set to increase by 240 million people by 2022.

The report, which called the global outlook for this year "bleak", was prepared by an international coalition bringing together UN agencies, the European Union and governmental and non-governmental bodies. 2023 was the fifth consecutive year of increase in the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity – defined as when a population faces food shortages that threaten lives or livelihoods, regardless of the cause or duration of time.

Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergencies office of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said, "new or intensified shocks" were felt in more geographical areas, while "notable declines occurred in key food crisis contexts such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip." " Hui. Nearly 700,000 people were on the verge of starvation last year, including 600,000 in Gaza, a figure that has since risen to 1.1 million in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

Since the Global Food Crisis Network's first report covering 2016, the number of food-insecure people has increased from 108 million to 282 million, Wouterse said. Meanwhile, the share of the affected population in the respective areas has doubled from 11 percent to 22 percent, he said. Major long-term food crises continue in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen.

“Children are dying of hunger,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in the report's introduction. “War, climate change and the cost of living crisis – combined with inadequate action – mean that some 300 million people face severe food crisis in 2023.”

For 2024, progress will depend on the end of hostilities, said Wouterse, who stressed that aid can "rapidly" ease the crisis in Gaza or Sudan once humanitarian access to the areas becomes possible.

Wouterse said deteriorating conditions in Haiti were due to political instability and declining agricultural production, "where in the breadbasket of the Artibonite Valley, armed groups have seized agricultural land and stolen crops." He said that El Nino weather phenomenon can cause severe drought in West and Southern Africa.

According to the report, conditions of conflict or insecurity have become the main cause of acute hunger in 20 countries or territories, where 135 million people are affected. Climate events such as floods or drought were the main cause of acute food insecurity for 72 million people in 18 countries, while economic shocks have pushed 75 million people into this situation in 21 countries.

"The impact of the decline in global food prices did not extend to low-income, import-dependent countries," the report said. Additionally, high debt levels "limited the government's options to mitigate the impact of high prices." The report found that the positive thing is that the situation of 17 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine, has improved in 2023.