CNN reports that the executive director of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, said famines could take hold in “about three dozen countries” in a worst-case scenario in a stark address on Tuesday.
He cited conflict, an economic recession, a decline in aid and a collapse in oil prices as factors likely to lead to vast food shortages, and urged swift action to avert disaster.
“While dealing with a Covid-19 pandemic, we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic.There is also a real danger that more people could potentially die from the economic impact of Covid-19 than from the virus itself,” David Beasley told the UN’s security council.
The hunger is expected to affect about 135 million people in 10 countries that have already had a hunger crises in the past year.
Ten countries were singled out as particularly at-risk, after housing the worst food crises last year; Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Nigeria and Haiti.
