*As WFP scales up food provision assistance to 138 million at estimated $4.9bn
EHIME ALEX, Lagos
A new report published on Friday shows that people in some 25 countries are set to face devasting levels of hunger in coming months due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Security Hotspots, compiled by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the greatest concentration of need is to be in Africa.
Stating, however, that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the Middle East and Asia – including middle-income countries – are also being ravaged by crippling levels of food insecurity.
“Three months ago at the UN Security Council, I told world leaders that we ran the risk of a famine of biblical proportions,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley, in a release by Kelechi Onyemaobi, national communications officer, communications division of the UN World Food Programme, Nigeria country office, Abuja.
Beasley added that “Today, our latest data tell us that, since then, millions of the world’s very poorest families have been forced even closer to the abyss. Livelihoods are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate and now their lives are in imminent danger from starvation. Make no mistake – if we do not act now to end this pandemic of human suffering, many people will die”
To prevent the worst, WFP said is scaling up to provide food assistance to an unprecedented 138 million people who face desperate levels of hunger as the pandemic tightens its grip on some of the most fragile countries on earth.
The cost of WFP’s response to this burgeoning food insecurity has been estimated at US$4.9 billion, with an additional $500 million being earmarked to prevent the outbreak of famine in countries most at risk.
The release hinted that this represents more than half of the updated COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, the largest appeal in the UN’s history, launched Friday, for more than US$10 billion.
The plan is said to cover wide-ranging humanitarian needs in more than 60 countries, many of them already reeling from the impact of conflict, climate change and economic crisis.
The number of acute food insecure people in these at-risk countries, according to WFP, could increase from an estimated 149 million pre-COVID-19 to 270 million before the end of the year if life-saving assistance is not provided urgently.
Recent estimates also suggest that up to 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as a result of pandemic-related disruptions to essential health and nutrition services.
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