Not only the war in Ukraine, but also other conflicts, the consequences of the pandemic and climate change are worsening the food situation in the world.

Welthungerhilfe and its partner organization Concern Worldwide are raising the alarm in a new report: According to this, the number of starving people has risen from 811 to 828 million people - and that was last year, i.e. before Russia attacked its neighboring country.

Hunger situation "dramatic"

Christian Schubert

Economic correspondent for Italy and Greece.

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For more than a decade there had been global average progress in reducing hunger.

This trend is now broken.

In this year and next, there is a risk of a further significant deterioration in the situation - not only because of the war in Ukraine, which is an important wheat supplier for North Africa and the Middle East.

Welthungerhilfe speaks of a “dramatic hunger situation”.

A "toxic mixture of wars and crises leads to catastrophe," complained the President of Welthungerhilfe, Marlehn Thieme, at the presentation of a new Global Hunger Index in Berlin.

Every 13 seconds a child dies from starvation.

The Global Hunger Index includes malnutrition, child stunting in terms of height and weight, and child mortality.

The situation is said to be worst in South Asia and south of the Sahara.

South Asia has the highest rates of wasting and stunting in children in the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of malnutrition and child mortality in the world.

The food situation is particularly serious in the countries of the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Yemen, Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria.

Parts of East Africa experienced one of the worst droughts in 40 years.

Against this background, the goal agreed internationally seven years ago to eradicate hunger by 2030 appears to be an illusion.

According to the report, there is also good news in 32 countries: the global hunger index has fallen by at least 50 percent since 2000.

Angola, Djibouti, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, Algeria, Iran and Turkey are among others in this group.

The Rome-based World Food Program reported on Thursday that the number of people suffering from hunger had reached new records for three years and called on the international community to finally tackle the causes of hunger and eliminate them.