It is a summary of planetary catastrophes: devastating impacts of drought in southern Africa, gang violence in Haiti, imminent risk of famine in Gaza… The number of people threatened by hunger in the world has never been so high. In 2023, 281 million people in 59 countries faced acute food insecurity, according to the global report on food crises, published Wednesday April 24 by several international organizations (UN agencies, European Union, United States Agency for International Development, etc.). This figure is up compared to 2022 (257 million) and for the fifth year in a row.
“This report sounds like a catalog of the failures of humanity, warns the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in the preamble to this analysis. In a world of abundance, children die of hunger »the diplomat is indignant.
Unlike other international assessments that document chronic food insecurity across the globe, the Food Crises Report focuses on regions facing the most extreme hunger hotspots – most often following a shock (armed conflict, economic crisis or climatic event) – requiring an emergency response. It is based on a food insecurity classification scale which distinguishes five levels before famine. Over the years, the number of territories and countries studied in this framework has increased. If this evolving scope makes comparisons from one year to the next more difficult, it also reflects a multiplication of crisis zones, and therefore, ultimately, of people confronted with emergencies.
In 2022, 22.5% of the population were threatened by hunger in 58 countries analyzed, compared to 21.5% a year later, over a wider area. “These figures can be difficult to interpret, observes Michael Siegel, director of advocacy at Action Against Hunger. Looking at the prevalence alone, one might believe in a slight improvement, but, the area covered being larger, it is indeed an increase in people affected by acute food insecurity. »
“A weapon of war”
The year 2023 was marked by new dazzling humanitarian crises. In Gaza, all of the 2.2 million inhabitants are today faced with hunger, due to the Israeli offensive launched the day after the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7; and half the population is affected at a catastrophic level. Never before seen on this scale, in the twenty years since the classification of food insecurity has been used. One month after alarming report, mid-March, on the explosion of hunger in Gaza, “the conditions necessary to prevent famine – in particular the immediate cessation of hostilities – are still not met”notes Fleur Wouterse, deputy director of the emergency and resilience office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
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