Hundreds of Millions of People at Risk of Severe Hunger: Red Cross

Geneva: Hundreds of millions of people are at risk of severe hunger in the coming months as extreme poverty, inequality and food insecurity rise, particularly in parts of Africa and the Middle East, following shocks in the food, energy and finance systems, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.
 
The conflict in Ukraine has contributed to a sharp increase in fuel, fertilizer and food prices, squeezing household budgets and forcing families to make impossible choices every day. 
 
"We face an urgent and rapidly deteriorating global food security situation, especially in parts of Africa and the Middle East. Armed conflict, political instability, climate shocks and the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have weakened capacities to withstand and recover from shocks. The knock-on-effects of the armed conflict in Ukraine have made an already critical situation even worse," said Robert Mardini, the director-general of the ICRC, in a press release on Monday.

Cereal prices in Africa have surged because of the slump in exports from Ukraine, sharpening the impact of conflict and climate change. 
 
Russia and Ukraine together constitute 25% of the world production of wheat and grains, while around 85% of Africa’s wheat supplies are imported. 
 
Somalia, for example, gets more than 90 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.
 
The spike in global prices has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable to shocks, especially subsistence farmers and people in conflict-affected areas, where social protection is weak. 
 
These same communities have seen millions of heads of livestock die this year from drought. 
 
In Yemen, after years of civil war, more than 50%of the population – more than 16 million people – is acutely food insecure.
 
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