Status: 07/12/2022 07:32 a.m
According to Welthungerhilfe, more than 800 million people are suffering from hunger. The climate crisis, corona pandemic and armed conflicts exacerbated the emergency. The war in Ukraine has made food unaffordable for many.
According to Welthungerhilfe, the sharp rise in food prices has exacerbated the crisis in many countries. The climate crisis, armed conflicts and the corona pandemic had already dramatically worsened the food situation in the Global South last year. The war of aggression against Ukraine has made the situation significantly worse in recent months, the organization said in its report for 2021.
Droughts like the current ones in the Horn of Africa or last year in Madagascar show the fatal consequences of climate change, explained Secretary General Mathias Mogge. “Anyone who survives on just under three US dollars a day simply cannot afford to double the price of bread.” Millions of people are on the brink of starvation because families have no resources left.
War in Ukraine causes prices to rise
According to Welthungerhilfe, the higher prices hit those who were already among the poorest the hardest. The number of people acutely threatened by hunger has been increasing for months. According to the report, food prices had already risen by 28 percent last year due to “multiple crises” – the war against Ukraine caused prices to rise again significantly.
According to the organization, around 811 million people are starving worldwide. The situation is particularly dramatic in Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan – but also in Madagascar and the countries of East Africa, where the effects of the climate crisis are causing severe droughts. These are “a wake-up call to finally step up efforts to combat climate change, which is leading to ever more serious humanitarian emergencies,” says the annual report.
More serious effects of climate change
Although the pandemic has led to emergencies in many countries, according to Welthungerhilfe, the biggest drivers of hunger in 2021 were the increasingly serious effects of climate change and the increasing number of armed conflicts.
“The consequences of the climate crisis are violent conflicts that promote hunger. Their number has increased again in recent years. Wars have a massive impact on the food system, for example because fields are burned, stocks are looted or the sale of harvests is restricted,” it says it in the report.
Welthungerhilfe: 526 projects in 36 countries
In 2021 alone, Welthungerhilfe said it supported around 16.6 million people in 36 countries with 526 projects abroad. Most of the aid – a total of 190.5 million euros – went to projects in Africa, followed by 55.6 million euros and 13 projects in Asia and 6.3 million euros and two projects in South America.
Welthungerhilfe is one of the largest private aid organizations in Germany, politically and denominationally independent and mainly financed by donations. It was founded in 1962 as the German section of the “Freedom from Hunger Campaign”, one of the first global UN initiatives to combat hunger.