HUNGER
​Africa has been particularly vulnerable: about 21% of people on the continent suffered from hunger in 2020, a total of 282 million people. Between 2019 and 2020, in the aftermath of the pandemic, 46 million people became hungry in Africa. No other region on the world presents a higher share of its population suffering from food insecurity.
Also, African households spend a large share of their income on food. According to a recent note in the Financial Times, citing estimates from the IMF, food represents 17% of expenditure in advanced economies, in sub-Saharan Africa the figure is 40%.
HUNGER AND FOOD SCARECITY.
Current hunger and famine crises became one of the reasons for Wars and Droughts
Hunger and famine crises are escalating at several hot spots: in four countries – three in Africa and one in the Middle East – a total of 20 million people, including countless children, are at risk of starvation. These four crisis areas, all suffering from the consequences of armed conflict, are:
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Nigeria: The terror unleashed by Boko Haram militants triggered a mass exodus in northeastern Nigeria. When the Nigerian army recaptured the area in 2016, the scale of the refugee and hunger crisis became apparent.
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Somalia: Located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia is marked by decades of civil war and anarchy. Now Somalia has been hit by a devastating drought and related famine. This is even more drastic than the 2011-2012 famine
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South Sudan: In the north of South Sudan, famine prevails: on February 2, 2017, the United Nations officially proclaimed a hunger emergency. The country’s civil war, which has been raging for years, leaves fields fallow and blocks aid deliveries.
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Yemen: The "poor house" of the Arab world is the only non-African country that is currently threatened by a famine. Since 2015, Yemen has been shaken by a civil war. Hunger is used as a weapon against the civilian population.
Famines are acute food crises, usually after drought or due to armed conflict. Famine is the worst form of food shortage. In addition to old people, babies and small children are especially threatened by starvation. According to the United Nations definition (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), there is a famine if at least:
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20% of households suffer from extreme food shortages,
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30% of the population is acutely malnourished; and
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Two out of every 10,000 people, or four children, die daily from food shortages.
One of the worst hunger crises of the past 25 years was the famine in East Africa in 2011/12. In war-torn Somalia, 260,000 people starved to death, including 133,000 children under the age of five.