By Asmau Ahmad
A new report by German NGO, Welthungerhilfe, says almost 830 million people worldwide are going hungry due to conflicts, climate change and COVID-19 that have affected the world in various ways.
The group’s World Hunger Index 2022 showed that conflicts, the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, together with structural problems, were undermining progress in the fight against hunger.
The war in Ukraine had further exacerbated the situation, the group said, although it did not play a role in the data for the latest report, which was collected in.
Compared to the previous year, the number of hungry people worldwide increased from 811 to 828 million.
Welthungerhilfe said, “Of those, 193 million people were suffering from acute hunger.”
“The war in Ukraine has continued to drive up global food, energy and fertilizer prices and will continue to significantly exacerbate hunger in 2023 and beyond.
“These crises compound structural causes of hunger such as poverty, inequality, poor governance and infrastructure, and low agricultural productivity,” it said on its website.
Welthungerhilfe ranked 121 countries based on four indicators: undernourishment, child mortality, child wasting (which is related to weight) and child stunting (related to height).
The lowest-placed country was Yemen, where 41.4 per cent of the population was undernourished.
In 35 countries, the hunger situation was classified as serious and in nine as very serious. The highest hunger rates were in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
