Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/west-africa-faces-acute-food-shortages-with-thousands-near-famine-say-un-2023-04-18/
Millions people are currently facing acute food shortage in West and Central Africa. This issue has occurred due to the pandemic, rising prices, and climate change according to UN officials. They face erratic temperatures due to a lack of rainfall in the region. The war in Ukraine has also contributed to food and fertilizer shortages in the region as well. The expected amount of people to reach famine is 48 million by the months of July and August according to the UN’s World Food Programme analysis.
A plight of countries in the Sahel region are also expected to face catastrophic hunger, a level below famine according to UN agencies. The conflict in Mali and Burkina Faso are also fighting an Islamic insurgency which has also led to a major depletion of food resources for the region which has lead to thousands of deaths and has displaced about 2.5 million people. The fighting has cut off key food supply routes that people rely on in order to survive. The high cost of hiring helicopters to reach the supply zones has also depleted a lot of the funds available. the WFP faces a $900 million deficit in this year alone and about 15 million children are facing acute hunger. The region’s dependence on imports has also made Africa very vulnerable to rising prices in the global market. I think that it is shocking just how many people are facing food insecurity even in the developed modern world that we live in today. It will be a long time before any real solutions to these major systemic issues are fixed, but I am optimistic that humanity as a whole is able to make this change for the better.
The World Food Programme is a governmental organization that seeks to change lives by delivering life-saving food supplies to areas in need of assistance. They also seek to improve the nutrition of communities and build resilience. The WFP has also said that there are currently about 828 million people who are chronically hungry. They suggest that the food systems in place are not meeting the larger needs of society as a whole. Flawed or broken food systems can affect food security in many different ways. Prices can increase which decreases access and affects farmers from making good profits on their crops. Some people are also geographically do not have easy access to food, and the WFP works to fill in these gaps in these kind of regions, and some areas also need assistance in bad harvesting seasons. Food systems can also be affected immensely by climate change and globalization, which are some of the largest problems that Africa as a whole is currently facing.