WFP: Acute food insecure people may increase to 270m, 6000 children may die in 6 months

The Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Security Hotspots by the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations, have said the number of acute food insecure people in these at-risk countries could increase from an estimated 149 million pre-COVID-19 to 270 million before the end of the year if life-saving assistance is not provided urgently.

They added that recent estimates also suggest that up to 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as a result of pandemic-related disruptions to essential health and nutrition services.

WFP in a statement released in Abuja at the weekend said the new report published shows that people in some 25 countries are set to face devastating levels of hunger in coming months due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

It states that while the greatest concentration of need is in Africa, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the Middle East and Asia, including middle-income countries – are also being ravaged by crippling levels of food insecurity.

 WFP Executive Director, David Beasley said: “Three months ago at the UN Security Council, I told world leaders that we ran the risk of a famine of biblical proportions. Today, our latest data tell us that, since then, millions of the world’s very poorest families have been forced even closer to the abyss.

“Livelihoods are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate and now their lives are in imminent danger from starvation. Make no mistake, if we do not act now to end this pandemic of human suffering, many people will die.”

He said to prevent the worst, WFP is scaling up to provide food assistance to an unprecedented 138 million people who face desperate levels of hunger as the pandemic tightens its grip on some of the most fragile countries on earth.

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