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WORLD NEWS Saturday 21 November 2020

In multiple countries, alarm over hunger crisis rings louder

By EISSA AHMED, TAMEEM "consequences that will re-
AKHGAR AND SAMY MAG- verberate indefinitely into
DY the future."
Associated Press Yemen is "now in imminent
ABS, Yemen (AP) — The danger of the worst famine
twin baby boys lay on a the world has seen for de-
bed of woven palm leaves cades," he said.
in a remote camp for dis- In Afghanistan — like Ye-
placed people in Yemen's men, crippled by war —
north, their collar bones the pandemic has meant
and ribs visible. They cried further losses of jobs and
loudly, twisting as if in pain, mounting food prices. The
not from disease but from poverty rate is expected
the hunger gnawing away to leap this year from 54%
at them. of the population of some
Here, U.N. officials' increas- 36 million to as high as 72%,
ingly dire warnings that according to World Bank
a hunger crisis is growing projections.
around the world are be- Some 700,000 Afghan
coming reality. workers returned from Iran
U.N. agencies have and Pakistan this year, flee-
warned that some 250 mil- ing coronavirus outbreaks.
lion people in 20 countries That halted millions of dol-
are threatened with sharply A malnourished girl Rahmah Watheeq receives treatment at a feeding center at Al-Sabeen lars in remittances, a key
spiking malnutrition or even hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday. Nov. 3, 2020. Associated Press income for families in Af-
famine in coming months. ghanistan, and returnees
The United Nations humani- famine, as crisis after crisis the WFP, warned the U.N. di Arabia. Soon after their flooded the ranks of those
tarian office this week re- wears on a population de- Security Council last week. birth, the family had to needing work. Markets in
leased $100 million in emer- pleted by five years of civil "Famine is truly a real and flee fighting to a displaced Kabul seem full of food
gency funding to seven war. The U.N. projected ear- dangerous possibility and camp in the district of Abs. items. But shop owners say
countries most at risk of lier this year that a quarter the warning lights are ... "We are struggling to treat fewer customers can afford
famine — Yemen, Afghani- of the population of Jonglei flashing red — as red can them," said Mariam Has- anything. More people are
stan, South Sudan, Ethio- State, home to more than be," he said. sam, the twins' grandmoth- experiencing major gaps in
pia, Nigeria, Congo, and 1.2 million, would reach the For years, Yemen has been er. "Their father took them their food — expected to
Burkina Faso. brink of famine. the center of the world's everywhere." rise to 42% of the popula-
But David Beasley, head of Now cut off from much of worst food crisis, driven by Two-thirds of Yemen's pop- tion by the end of the year,
the World Food Program, the world by flooding that the destructive civil war ulation of about 28 million from 25%, according to
says billions in new aid are has affected some 1 million between Iranian-backed people are hungry. In the U.N. figures.
needed. Without it, "we people, many South Suda- Houthi rebels who in 2014 south, U.N. data from re- In the Bagrami displaced
are going to have famines nese have seen farming took over the north and the cent surveys show cases of camp in the mountains sur-
of biblical proportions in and other food-gathering capital, Sanaa, and a Sau- severe acute malnutrition rounding Kabul, Gul Makai
2021," he said in an Asso- activities ripped apart. di-led coalition backing the rose 15.5% this year, and at sat beside her mud-brick
ciated Press interview last The challenges are so nu- government in the south. least 98,000 children under hut. She had spent the night
week. In multiple countries, merous that even "plastic International aid pulled five could die of it. shoveling out water and
the coronavirus pandemic sheets are not available, it from the edge of fam- By the end of the year, 41% mud after the roof leaked
has added a new burden as they had largely been ine two years ago. But the of the south's 8 million peo- in a recent snow. With early
on top of the impact of on- used for the previous flood threat has surged back this ple are expected to have snows this year, tempera-
going wars, pushing more response," the U.N. humani- year, fueled by increasing significant gaps in food tures have dropped below
people into poverty, un- tarian agency said this violence and a currency consumption, up from 25%. freezing. Her 12 children, all
able to afford food. At the week. collapse that put food out The situation could be 10 or younger, sat with her,
same time, international COVID-19 has restricted of reach for growing num- worse in Sanaa and the hungry and shivering in the
aid funding has fallen short, trade and travel. Food bers of people. north, home to more than cold breeze. They were all
weakening a safety net prices rose. Post-war unrest Donors have been wary of 20 million people. The U.N. thin. One daughter, Nea-
that keeps people alive. remains deadly; gunmen new funding because of is currently conducting a mat, around 4, had the
In Afghanistan's capital, recently fired on WFP boats corruption and restrictions similar survey there. withered look that suggests
Kabul, Zemaray Hakimi carrying supplies. that Houthis have put on Sanaa's main hospital, al- malnutrition. Makai fled
said he can only give his "The convergence of con- humanitarian workers. The Sabeen, received over seven months ago from her
children one meal a day, flict, macroeconomic crisis, U.N. had to cut in half the 180 cases of malnutrition home in southern Helmand
usually hard, black bread recurrent flooding as well rations it gives to 9 million and acute malnutrition in province after her husband
dunked in tea. He lost his as the indirect impacts of people — and faces pos- the past three months, well was killed in a crossfire be-
work as a taxi driver af- COVID create a 'perfect sible cuts to another 6 mil- over its capacities, accord- tween government forces
ter contracting COVID-19 storm,'" the country director lion in January. ing Amin al-Eizari, a nurse. and the Taliban. By beg-
and now waits daily on the for the CARE aid group, Ro- The 18-month-old twins, At least five children died ging, she scrounges up
street for day laborer work salind Crowther, said in an Mohammed and Ali, weigh at the hospital during that enough rice or hard bread
that rarely comes. email. "Flooding and vio- only about 3 kilograms, or period, with more dying to give her kids one meal a
When his children complain lence have led to massive 6.6 pounds, less than a third outside, he said. day. She eats every other
of hunger, he said, "I tell displacement, low crop of the weight they should U.N. Secretary-General An- day. "The weather in winter
them to bear it. One day production and loss of live- be, according to their doc- tonio Guterres on Friday will get colder," she said. "If I
maybe we can get some- lihoods and livestock." tor. Their father, Hassan urged parties with influ- don't get help, my children
thing better." In the Arabian Peninsula, al-Jamai, was a farmer in ence in Yemen to take ac- may get sick, or God forbid,
South Sudan may be closer Yemen is on a "countdown northern Hajjah province tion to "stave off catastro- I may lose any of them. We
than any other country to to catastrophe," Beasley, of near the border with Sau- phe" or risk a tragedy with are in a bad condition."q