On Monday, the United Nations called for the need to take urgent humanitarian measures in 20 countries that it considered a hotbed of hunger in the world, including 5 Arab countries, namely Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Lebanon.
This came in a joint report issued by the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The report warned that food insecurity in the 20 countries could deteriorate over the next three months, i.e. between June and September 2022.
He revealed that 750,000 men, women and children are currently facing starvation and death in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The report added that Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan remain on "high alert", a state of catastrophic conditions, which means that there are segments of the population facing catastrophic food insecurity, or at risk of deteriorating into catastrophic conditions.
The report considered that the situation is of grave concern in Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and the Sahel region.
The World Food Program and the FAO warned in the report that the conflict in Ukraine would exacerbate hunger, turning a series of terrible hunger crises into a global food crisis that the world could not afford.
The report concluded that, in addition to conflict, climate shocks will continue to cause acute hunger in the forecast period from June to September 2022, as the world enters a new normal, where frequent droughts, floods and hurricanes devastate agriculture, increasing displacement and driving Millions to the brink in these countries.
Global food prices are approaching record levels recorded last March, when the Russian-Ukrainian war devastated the markets for basic grains and edible oils.