Famine multiplied by six since the pandemic
The Sahel region is experiencing one of the most serious food crises in the world, with 1.6 million children currently suffering from acute malnutrition.
AP - Rebecca Blackwell
Text by: Léa Pernelle
3 min
Famine is one of the heaviest consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the new report from the NGO Oxfam, published on July 9, 2021, the number of people suffering from famine has increased sixfold since the start of the pandemic.
Publicity
Read more
Currently, seven people die every minute in the world from hunger.
But the NGO Oxfam is sounding the alarm.
This sad rate could accelerate and reach eleven people per minute before the end of the year.
The NGO calls into question what it calls “the 3 Cs”, such as Conflicts, Covid-19 and Climate Crisis.
The pandemic and the containment measures have slowed economic activity and caused mass unemployment.
In addition, there are border closures which continue to disrupt supplies to certain countries such as Yemen and Haiti.
All these measures have caused a 40% increase in the price of foodstuffs since last year.
Which makes it the biggest food inflation of the decade.
Worrisome situation in the Sahel
The NGO is particularly concerned in areas most devastated by the conflict, such as Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria.
The escalation of violence, particularly in the Lake Chad basin, has led more than 5 million people to flee.
The Sahel region is experiencing one of the most serious food crises in the world, with 1.6 million children currently suffering from acute malnutrition.
The floods, nearly twice as numerous in five years, destroyed homes and wiped out crops and herds of nearly two million people last year.
Rising military budgets
Oxfam regrets that governments are not making the fight against hunger a priority when budgets for military spending are on the rise.
Mali, for example, has imported seven times more arms in the past five years than at the start of the decade.
For Hélène Botreau, spokesperson for Oxfam, "
we must stop conflicts, especially in this period of pandemic where we need States to refocus on essential services, on social protection
".
According to her, "
the budgets allocated to military spending, the resources to buy weapons are increasing, while the resources to respond to the food crisis are not increasing at the same time fast enough
".
The NGO expects governments to take action at the next World Security Committee to be held in Rome next October.
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Coronavirus
NGO
Africa
Yemen
Haiti
Employment and Work
our selection