Status: 08.11.2021 12:52 p.m.
The UN is sounding the alarm: More people than ever before have to fear for every meal. In Afghanistan in particular, the situation has deteriorated dramatically. Much more money is needed.
According to the UN, the number of people at risk of hunger worldwide has risen sharply this year. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) declared that 42 million people were affected at the beginning of the year. In 2019, 29 million people were still at risk.
This year, the WFP is caring for 139 million people in 85 states, more than ever in its history. The costs have risen from 6.6 to seven billion euros. The cost of humanitarian aid has increased exponentially, said WFP Executive Director David Beasley: “We need more resources to reach families around the world who have exhausted their options to cope with extreme hunger.”
“Tens of millions of people are looking into the abyss. Conflicts, climate change and Covid-19 are causing the number of people suffering from hunger to skyrocket,” Beasley said. In crisis countries like Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, the prices for fuel, for food and for fertilizer have increased, which is worsening the situation.
Aid for 23 million Afghans
Most of the additional people at risk of starvation are in Afghanistan been registered. There the WFP is expanding its aid to help 23 million people. The country is not only suffering from the aftermath of the Taliban seizure of power, but also from the worst drought in years. Governments of donor countries like Germany stopped their development payments because of the Taliban rule and only pay emergency humanitarian aid.
In a country of civil war Ethiopia According to the WFP, the number of those at risk has recently increased massively because of the fighting: It is now assumed that seven million people in the north of the country were starving. In the report, among other things, the situation in Yemen (13.2 million starving people), in Syria (12.4 million starving people) im South Sudan (7.2 million starving people) and in Madagascar (1.3 million starving people) highlighted as particularly dramatic.