‘Number of people facing food shortage at highest level in 2021’

The United Nations said on Wednesday that the number of people who were facing a lack of enough food on a daily basis reached the highest level last year. Along with this, the global body warned that this number is expected to reach “alarming” levels as global food production is affected due to the Russo-Ukraine war.

The United Nations said that in 2021, about 193 million people in 53 countries will face severe food insecurity. He said that three reasons for this include conflict, adverse weather and the economic impact of the corona virus epidemic. The United Nations said the total number of people facing a lack of adequate food every day increased by 40 million last year, indicating a “worrying trend” of annual growth over several years.

These figures have come out in the Global Report on Food Crisis. The report has been jointly prepared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and the European Union. According to the report, such populations were the highest in countries that have faced long-standing conflict, including Afghanistan, Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Somalia could face one of the world’s worst food crises in 2022, and 6 million Somalians will face a serious food crisis due to prolonged drought, rising food prices and continued violence, it said. can do.

Today, the scale of starvation and loss of livelihood would be dire if more measures are not taken to help rural communities, the United Nations said. Preventing this from happening requires immediate human action on a large scale. It said the Ukraine war has increased risks to Somalia and several other African countries that depend on Ukraine and Russia for wheat, fertilizer and other food supplies.