Pak Sahafat – The UN coordinator for preventing and combating famine, stating that the risk of famine should be a red line, announced: A quarter of a billion people faced acute food insecurity last year.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, Reena Gilani, the UN coordinator for preventing and combating famine, added at the UN Security Council meeting chaired by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month: The risk of famine, where people are slowly starving to death, should be a red line?
Yet the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity reached a quarter of a billion last year. This is the highest record in recent years.
This senior UN official added: Of these people, about 376,000 people in seven countries were facing famine conditions. 35 million people from other countries were present. As in all crisis situations, women and children are the most affected.
The UN Coordinator for Famine Prevention and Response continued: Every one of the seven countries where people faced famine conditions last year were affected by armed conflicts or extreme levels of violence. Five of these seven countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, are regularly on the agenda of the Security Council.
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Gilani stated: Armed conflicts destroy food systems, people’s livelihoods and drive people out of their homes, making many extremely vulnerable and hungry. Sometimes these effects are side effects of war, but often they are deliberately and illegally created, and starvation is used as a war tactic.
This senior UN official added: Hunger caused by conflict is compounded by a toxic combination of climate change and economic shocks. Climate change is increasingly becoming a threat.
Rina Gilani continued: We must increase efforts to prevent, reduce and end conflicts in all their forms. In areas where achieving peace is not possible in a short period of time, it is vital to ensure that the parties to the conflict respect international humanitarian law.
The UN coordinator for preventing and combating famine added: Better use of existing early warning mechanisms such as Resolution 2417 (2018) should be made in a focused and effective manner.
He continued: One should be bold and creative in finding ways to reduce the impact of war on the most vulnerable people. Women and girls must be at the center of our efforts. Crises and hunger disproportionately affect them, and they also hold the key to sustainable solutions.