The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), have warned that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 18 hunger hotspots comprising 22 countries from June to November 2023.
According to the report released by the United Nations Agencies recently, stated that Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen still remain at the highest concern level, while elevated Haiti, the Sahel (Burkina Faso and Mali) and the Sudan to this level.
Added that this is due to severe movement restrictions of people and goods in Haiti, as well as in Burkina Faso and Mali, and the recent eruption of conflict in the Sudan.
Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Syrian Arab Republic are hotspots with very high concern, and the warning is also extended to Myanmar in this edition.
All these hotspots have a high number of people facing critical acute food insecurity, coupled with worsening drivers that are expected to further intensify life‐threatening conditions in the coming months, the Agencies reported.
It stated further that Lebanon, El Salvador and Nicaragua have been added to the list of hunger hotspot countries, since the September 2022 edition, while Malawi, Guatemala and Honduras remain hunger hotspot countries.
The report which spotlighted the risk of a spill-over of the Sudan crisis – raising the risk of negative impacts in neighbouring countries, also showed that deepening economic shocks continue to drive low-
And middle- income nations deeper into crisis, and warns that a likely El Niño climatic phenomenon is raising fears of climate extremes in vulnerable countries around the globe.
The report also found that many hotspots are facing growing hunger and highlights the worrying multiplier effect that simultaneous and overlapping shocks are having on acute food insecurity.
Conflict, climate extremes, and economic shocks continue to drive more and more communities into crisis, called for urgent humanitarian action to save lives and livelihoods and prevent starvation and death in hotspots where acute hunger is at a high risk of worsening from June to November 2023.