The anti-poverty organisation Oxfam, On Thursday, Oxfam – the charitable group that seeks to alleviate poverty in a report titled, “The Hunger Virus Multiplies,” has said that the death toll from famine outpaces that of COVID-19, which kills around seven people per minute.
The report says that 11 people die of hunger and malnutrition each minute and that the number facing famine-like conditions around the globe has increased six times over the last year.
The report says that overall, 155 million people around the world are now living in crisis levels of food insecurity or worse – that is 20 million more than last year. Around 2 out of every 3 of these people are going hungry primarily because their country is in war and conflict.
The report also describes the massive impact that economic shocks, particularly worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, along with the worsening climate crisis, have had in pushing tens of millions more people into hunger. Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40 percent surge in global food prices – the highest rise in over a decade.
“Today, unrelenting conflict on top of the COVID-19 economic fallout, and a worsening climate crisis, has pushed more than 520,000 people to the brink of starvation. Instead of battling the pandemic, warring parties fought each other, too often landing the last blow to millions already battered by weather disasters and economic shocks.” – Oxfam’s Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher, said.
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“The statistics are staggering, but we must remember that these figures are made up of individual people facing unimaginable suffering. Even one person is too many,” said Oxfam America’s President and CEO Abby Maxman.
“Today, unrelenting conflict on top of the COVID-19 economic fallout, and a worsening climate crisis, has pushed more than 520,000 people to the brink of starvation,” added Maxman.
Further, the report says that hunger has also intensified in emerging epicenters of hunger ―middle-income countries such as India, South Africa, and Brazil― which also saw some of the sharpest rises in COVID-19 infections.
In India, the “spiralling COVID-19 infections devastated public health as well as income, particularly for migrant workers and farmers, who were forced to leave their crops in the field to rot. Over 70% of people surveyed in 12 states have downgraded their diet because they could not afford to pay for food. School closures have also deprived 120 million children of their main meal.”
“Governments must stop conflict from continuing to fuel catastrophic hunger and instead ensure aid agencies reach those in need. Donor governments must immediately and fully fund the UN’s humanitarian appeal to help save lives now. Security Council members must also hold to account all those who use hunger as a weapon of war,” said the Executive Director, Gabriela Bucher Oxfam.
“Instead of battling the pandemic, warring parties fought each other, too often landing the last blow to millions already battered by weather disasters and economic shocks.” Despite the pandemic, Oxfam said that global military spending increased by $51 billion during the pandemic — an amount that exceeds by at least six times what the U.N. needs to stop hunger.
The report listed a number of countries as “the worst hunger hot spots” including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — all embroiled in conflict.
“Starvation continues to be used as a weapon of war, depriving civilians of food and water and impeding humanitarian relief. People can’t live safely or find food when their markets are being bombed and crops and livestock are destroyed,” said Maxman.
The organisation urged governments to stop conflicts from continuing to spawn “catastrophic hunger” and to ensure that relief agencies could operate in conflict zones and reach those in need. It also called on donor countries to “immediately and fully” fund the UN’s efforts to alleviate hunger.
Global warming and the economic repercussions of the pandemic have caused a 40% increase in global food prices, the highest in over a decade. This surge has contributed significantly to pushing tens of millions more people into hunger, the report claimed.