NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – According to estimates by the United Nations (UN), the number of people suffering from hunger worldwide continued to rise in the past year. Between 702 and 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021, according to the annual Global Supply Situation Report, presented in New York on Wednesday. That is around 46 million more than the average for the previous year (721 million). The challenges of ending hunger and malnutrition are growing, wrote several UN agencies, including Unicef, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In their report, the experts attributed the increased number of starving people to the corona pandemic, the consequences of climate change and conflicts. For example, the economies in the countries hardest hit by the pandemic have recovered unevenly – and in some cases not at all. According to the latest UN figures from 2020, almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet as a result.
The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine therefore poses another risk, as supply chains have been interrupted due to the conflict. Ukraine is, among other things, a major exporter of grain. As a result of the conflict, food prices rose significantly in the first half of 2022. According to the UN, the food supply situation is particularly bad in countries in the Middle East and Africa./jon/DP/jha