UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the Security Council on Thursday (March 11th) that in the absence of “
immediate action
”, “
millions of people
” risk “
famine and death
” around the world.
Read also: Ethiopia: in Tigray, the war awakens the specter of famine
"
Climate shocks and the Covid-19 pandemic are fueling
" the risk, he stressed during a Council meeting on the link between hunger and security, organized by the United States, adding that in some thirty countries, "
more than 30 million people are close to being declared in a situation of famine
".
"
My message is simple: if you do not feed people, you feed conflicts
", he insisted, denouncing the responsibility of man in the creation of famines.
“
Famine and hunger are no longer a question of lack of food.
They are now largely man-made and I use the term on purpose
, ”he said.
“In the
21st century, there is no need to have famines,
” he insisted.
The UN chief recalled that “
at the end of 2020, more than 88 million people were suffering from acute hunger due to conflict and instability, an increase of 20% in one year
”.
"
Projections for 2021 indicate a continuation of this frightening trend
", He warned, indicating that they"
show that the hunger crises are intensifying and spreading in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, and accelerating in South Sudan, in Yemen and Afghanistan
”.
"
To prevent a disaster for some 34 million women, men, girls and boys,
" the UN and its agencies have called for "
urgent mobilization
" to provide "
5.5 billion dollars in additional resources,
”said Antonio Guterres.
Finally, he announced the creation at the UN in New York of a “
high-level task force on the prevention of famine
”, to which representatives of the World Food Program (WFP) and the United
Nations
Organization will contribute. Food and Agriculture United Nations (FAO).