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UN Warns of Global Wave of Hunger and Food Crisis

  • Ripple effects from the war in Ukraine have led to a global crisis affecting food, energy and finance. Global action is required to save lives and livelihoods, UN Secretary-General  Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday.

    Ripple effects from the war in Ukraine have led to a global crisis affecting food, energy and finance. Global action is required to save lives and livelihoods, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday. | Photo: Twitter @UN_News_Centre

Published 9 June 2022
Opinion

According to the World Food Program, the number of people affected by severe food insecurity could increase by 47 million in 2022.


The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), António Guterres, declared on Wednesday that the world is facing "an unprecedented wave of hunger and misery", which may trigger social chaos. The official insisted that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia represents a high cost to the lives of all people, and reiterated that no nation will be left out of this crisis. 

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According to forecasts of the World Food Program, cited by Guterres, the effects of the conflict could increase the number of severely food insecure people by 47 million in 2022. 

On the food situation, the UN representative indicated that "food prices are near record highs. Fertilizer prices have more than doubled, sounding alarm bells everywhere." 

This situation, Guterres said, will have an impact on fertilizer shortages, which will affect maize and wheat production and other key global food crops such as rice. This will have a "devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America", said the UN Secretary General, and pointed out that next year the scenario, unlike this one, which is marked by access to food, could turn into a total lack of food. 

"And the financial situation continues to impact many developing countries, in addition to the risk of debt default and economic collapse due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the inequality of recovery and the climate crisis," Guterres stressed.

This scenario impinges on gender inequality, where, according to the UN secretary, women, and girls "are often the last to eat, and the first to stop eating as food shortages spread."  

"After sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest number of countries exposed to the triple crises of food, energy, and finance. And you can also see in the report the difficult situation they face in terms of debt," said the UN representative.

Specifically as one of the detrimental effects of the conflict, and specifically in relation to the cost of electricity, the UN Secretary stressed that record prices for energy services are causing blackouts and fuel shortages globally, especially on the African continent. 

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