The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) - UN food agencies - warned on Thursday (31) that hunger levels could worsen over the next seven months in many parts of the world, with Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali and Haiti being the most worrisome.

According to a VOAMozambique, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen are hotspots of great concern, with large numbers of people facing acute and critical food insecurity, coupled with worsening factors that are expected to further intensify life-threatening conditions in the coming months.

Conflicts and armed violence are responsible for most of the acute food insecurity in all the regions analyzed in the report 'Hunger hotspots - FAO-WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity', which covers the period from November 2024 to May 2025.

"The situation in the five most worrying hunger hotspots is catastrophic. People are suffering extreme food shortages and face unprecedented long-lasting hunger, fueled by escalating conflicts, climate crises and economic shocks," said QU Dongyu, Director-General of the FAO.

Dongyu stresses that "we urgently need" a ceasefire and humanitarian action. "But this alone is not enough; we need long-term stability and food security," he stresses.

Extreme weather is an important factor, considering that the effects of La Niña will impact the climate until March 2025. Economic inequality and high debt levels in many developing countries are hampering governments' ability to respond, according to the joint report.

"In the absence of immediate humanitarian efforts and concerted international action to remedy serious access difficulties and to mitigate conflict and insecurity, hunger and loss of life are likely to worsen" in these regions, the report warns.

The authors point out that the report focuses on "the most serious situations" and therefore does not represent "all the countries/territories experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity". This is the case of Angola. With regard to Angola, the report shows that the southern and eastern provinces "affected by a drought induced by the El Niño phenomenon, low food reserves and reduced opportunities for agricultural work have significantly reduced purchasing power in a context of exceptionally poor harvests" and high inflation.

The year 2024 is the second consecutive year of reduced funding for humanitarian aid, and twelve plans in the food security sector have faced funding shortfalls of more than 75% in countries such as Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria and Burma.

The worst is yet to come

Levels of food insecurity are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with the latter corresponding to a "catastrophic" situation. In the Gaza Strip, the recent upsurge in hostilities has led to fears that the "catastrophic" scenario of famine could become a reality, according to the report.

Around 41% of the population, or 876,000 people, will face "emergency" levels of hunger, level 4, from November until the end of April, while almost 16%, or 345,000 people, will suffer "catastrophic" levels, according to the report.

By mid-October, 1.9 million people, or 91% of Gaza's population, were displaced.

In Sudan, hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict will continue to face famine, according to the same source. In South Sudan, the number of people facing starvation and death is already expected to almost double in the four months between April and July 2024, compared to the same period in 2023.

But these figures could worsen from May 2025, with the period following and preceding two harvests.

According to the report, more than a million people have been affected by severe flooding this month in South Sudan, a chronically unstable country plagued by violence and economic stagnation.

Similarly, armed violence in Haiti, combined with a persistent economic crisis and hurricanes, is likely to exacerbate already critical levels of hunger.

The escalation of the conflict in Mali, where the UN withdrew its peacekeeping mission in 2023, is likely to worsen the already critical levels, with armed groups imposing roadblocks and preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The direct and indirect effects of conflicts on food insecurity are considerable, according to the report, and go far beyond the destruction of livestock and crops.

Conflicts force people to flee their homes, "disrupting livelihoods and incomes, limiting access to markets and leading to price fluctuations and irregular food production and consumption".

In some worrying regions, extreme weather conditions caused by the possible reappearance this winter of La Niña, a natural climatic phenomenon that can trigger heavy rainfall or exacerbate droughts and heat waves, could exacerbate food crises, according to the report.

(Photo DR)