The number of people facing acute lack of food still increasing

By Lisa Zengarini

The number of people fighting hunger and suffering from malnutrition is continuing to grow at an alarming pace worldwide.

In 2023, nearly 282 million people across 59 countries/territories faced high levels of acute food insecurity requiring urgent assistance, with war-torn Gaza and Sudan as the areas with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC) 2024.

The report was published this week by the Global Network against Food Crises (GNFC), a coalition of development and humanitarian organisations launched in 2016 by the European Union, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to assess and address food insecurity worldwide.

According to its findings, 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than in 2022.

Famine looming in war-torn Gaza and Sudan

The report points to conflict as the major factor in driving acute food insecurity, and this year's edition highlights two notable conflict-driven food crises, in Sudan and Gaza.

Sudan experienced a significant deterioration in food security following the outbreak of the new internal conflict on 15 April 2023 conflict, with an additional 8.6 million people facing high levels of acute food insecurity as compared to the pre-conflict period, bringing the total to 20.3 million.

The findings confirmed that the ongoing war in Gaza has resulted in the worst food crisis ever recorded in the Strip.  On a five-level hunger scale (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification - IPC) the entire Gazan population is classified at crisis level (Phase 3) and 50 per cent is projected in a state of catastrophe (Phase 5) as of March 2024.

705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5 the highest number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year. Over 80% of those facing imminent famine - 577,000 people - were in Gaza. An official from the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday that the Palestinian enclave could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in the next six weeks.

Other countries facing catastrophic hunger

South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali each host many thousands also facing catastrophic hunger. According to the report, the 10 countries with the world’s largest food crisis in 2023 were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, the Syrian Arab Republic, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar.

Weather extremes among the driving factors of food crises

Natural disasters and weather extremes, now intensified by climate change,  and economic shock are other important drivers of food insecurity which is also related to structural vulnerability like poverty, high dependence on food imports, and precarious infrastructure.

The 10 worst food crises account together for more than 60% of the total population affected by high levels of acute food insecurity in the 59 countries/territories for which data was available.

High levels of malnutrition related to acute food insecurity

Areas with high levels of acute food insecurity often tend to have high levels of acute malnutrition. When combined, these create a heavy burden on the development and well-being of populations, especially children.  In 2023, in the 32 food crisis countries where data was available, about 36.4 million children under 5 years of age suffered from acute malnutrition, of whom 9.8 million faced severe acute malnutrition and needed urgent treatment.

Guterres: urgent need to address root causes of food insecurity

The outlook for 2024 indicates prolonged food crises, with armed conflicts, again, as the main catalyst. Over 50% of people projected to experience high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024 are in DRC, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Myanmar. Weather extremes are the main driver of the food crisis projected in Southern Africa for 2024, drought is severely impacting crops and livestock in several countries with large areas already reporting loss of harvests and death of animals. Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe have recently declared a state of disaster.

Commenting on the report’s findings U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an urgent response to address the underlying causes of hunger and malnutrition and lamented that funding is also not keeping pace with the needs.