According to the UN, the number of people threatened by hunger worldwide has increased significantly this year.
At the beginning of the year 42 million people were counted who were threatened by hunger, so there are now 45 million, as the World Food Program of the United Nations (WFP) announced on Monday in Rome.
The additional people threatened by hunger were mainly registered in Afghanistan, as the WFP further announced.
“Tens of millions of people look into the abyss.
Conflict, climate change and Covid-19 are causing the number of people suffering from hunger to skyrocket, ”said WFP Executive Director David Beasley.
"The latest surveys show that more than 45 million people are on the verge of starvation."
In crisis countries like Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, the prices for fuel, for food and for fertilizer have increased, which is worsening the situation.
In Syria alone, 12.4 million people and thus almost 60 percent of the population are in the situation of not knowing where to get their next meal from.
The situation in Syria is particularly bad
Welthungerhilfe had already warned in June that the number of people in need in Syria who were dependent on humanitarian aid would increase dramatically.
The UN agricultural organization FAO predicted a significantly lower harvest of wheat, the most important staple food, this season compared to the previous year.
Civil war has been raging in the country for ten years.
Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and around twelve million were displaced, around half of them within the country.
Syria has also been suffering from a severe economic crisis since 2019.
Many people can no longer afford staple foods.
There are always reports of long queues at gas stations and bakeries with subsidized bread.
The number of starving and acutely malnourished children is increasing.