The world faces famines of “biblical proportions” caused by the coronavirus virus, the UN has warned.
The head of the United Nations’ food agency said that due to the fallout from the Covid-19 the world is “on the brink of a hunger pandemic” that could lead to “multiple famines” within a few months.
David Beasley has warned that up to 300,000 could starve to death every day if urgent action is not taken.
Mr Beasley, who is head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said urgent action was needed to avoid a catastrophe.
The people most at risk are in 10 countries affected by conflict, economic crisis and climate change, the WFP says.
Addressing the UN Security Council during a video conference, Mr Beasley said the world had to “act wisely and act fast”.
He added: “We could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months. The truth is we do not have time on our side.
“I do believe that with our expertise and our partnerships, we can bring together the teams and the programmes necessary to make certain the Covid-19 pandemic does not become a human and food crisis catastrophe.”
Mr Beasley painted a grim picture of 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus, noting that WFP currently offers a lifeline to nearly 100 million people – up from about 80 million just a few years ago.
He said: “If we can’t reach these people with the life-saving assistance they need, our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period.
“This does not include the increase of starvation due to COVID-19.”
Adding that the WFP is the “logistics backbone” for humanitarians and “even more so now for the global effort to beat the COVID-19 pandemic”, the WFP chief urged the Council to “lead the way”.
“First and foremost, we need peace”, he said.
He asked that all involved in the fighting provide “swift and unimpeded” humanitarian access to vulnerable communities and for coordinated action to support life-saving assistance, along with $350 million in new funding, to set up a network of logistics hubs to keep worldwide humanitarian supply chains moving.
Mr. Beasley also raised the need for early warning systems: “If we don’t prepare and act now – to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade – we could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.”
He underlined that “we do not have time on our side, so let’s act wisely – and let’s act fast”.
But Mr Beasley also told the Security Council that even before Covid-19 became an issue, he was telling world leaders that “2020 would be facing the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two”.
He pointed to the wars in Syria, Yemen as well as other conflicts and highlighted locust swarms in Africa, frequent natural disasters and economic crises including in Lebanon, Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Mr Beasley said 821 million people go to bed hungry every night all over the world, a further 135 million people are facing “crisis levels of hunger or worse,” and a new World Food Programme analysis shows that as a result of Covid-19 an additional 130 million people “could be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of 2020”.
Mr Beasley, who is recovering from Covid-19, said if those 30 million people cannot be reached, “our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period” - and that doesn’t include increased starvation due to the coronavirus.
“In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three dozen countries, and in fact, in 10 of these countries we already have more than one million people per country who are on the verge of starvation,” he said.
According to WFP, the 10 countries with the worst food crises in 2019 were Yemen, Congo, Afghanistan.
