(Paris) People in Gaza, Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan could face “catastrophic levels” of food insecurity by October without humanitarian action and international efforts to unblock access to affected areas, UN agencies warned on Wednesday.
The UN has been warning for several months that famine threatens in Gaza.
In a new report on “hunger hotspots” in the world, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) recall that more than a million people, half of the population of the Palestinian territory, could fall into a state of catastrophic food insecurity by mid-July.
This situation is the consequence of “the devastating impact of the ongoing conflict, heavy access restrictions and the collapse of local agri-food systems”, according to the UN agencies, which are also concerned about the risk of contagion of food insecurity in Lebanon and Syria.
In South Sudan, “low local food production linked to currency depreciation is leading to soaring food prices, compounded by the risk of flooding and recurring waves of subnational conflicts,” according to the report which assesses the food security status from June to October.
In Mali, the situation is deteriorating due to “the intensification of conflicts” and is “aggravated by the withdrawal” of the United Nations mission, the document argues. In Sudan, between agricultural production strongly affected by violence and looting, and imports hampered by material and financial difficulties, food prices are soaring, the report also indicates.
The FAO and WFP added Haiti to the list of areas of greatest concern (the previous list dated October 2023) as increasing violence by armed groups “further disrupts supplies, increases internal displacement and affects the ‘humanitarian access’.
In total, the food crisis is tightening its grip on 18 “hunger hotspots”, estimates the results of UN agencies, with a “very high” level of concern for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma, Syria and Yemen.