Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20201121

A30 world news
Diasabra 21 November 2020

In multiple countries, alarm over hunger crisis rings louder

reach for growing numbers of people.
Yemen is “now in imminent danger
Donors have been wary of new fund- of the worst famine the world has
ing because of corruption and restric- seen for decades,” he said.
tions that Houthis have put on hu- In Afghanistan — like Yemen, crip-
manitarian workers. The U.N. had pled by war — the pandemic has
to cut in half the rations it gives to 9 meant further losses of jobs and
million people — and faces possible mounting food prices. The poverty
cuts to another 6 million in January. rate is expected to leap this year from
54% of the population of some 36
The 18-month-old twins, Moham- million to as high as 72%, according
med and Ali, weigh only about 3 kilo- to World Bank projections.
grams, or 6.6 pounds, less than a third Some 700,000 Afghan workers re-
of the weight they should be, accord- turned from Iran and Pakistan this
ing to their doctor. year, fleeing coronavirus outbreaks.
Their father, Hassan al-Jamai, was a That halted millions of dollars in re-
farmer in northern Hajjah province mittances, a key income for families
near the border with Saudi Arabia. in Afghanistan, and returnees flooded
Soon after their birth, the family had the ranks of those needing work.
to flee fighting to a displaced camp in Markets in Kabul seem full of food
the district of Abs. items. But shop owners say fewer
customers can afford anything. More
“We are struggling to treat them,” said people are experiencing major gaps in
(AP) — The twin baby boys lay on South Sudan may be closer than any Mariam Hassam, the twins’ grand- their food — expected to rise to 42%
a bed of woven palm leaves in a other country to famine, as crisis af- mother. “Their father took them ev- of the population by the end of the
remote camp for displaced peo- ter crisis wears on a population de- erywhere.” year, from 25%, according to U.N.
ple in Yemen’s north, their collar pleted by five years of civil war. The figures.
bones and ribs visible. They cried U.N. projected earlier this year that Two-thirds of Yemen’s population of
loudly, twisting as if in pain, not a quarter of the population of Jonglei about 28 million people are hungry. In the Bagrami displaced camp in the
from disease but from the hunger State, home to more than 1.2 million, In the south, U.N. data from recent mountains surrounding Kabul, Gul
gnawing away at them. would reach the brink of famine. surveys show cases of severe acute Makai sat beside her mud-brick hut.
malnutrition rose 15.5% this year, She had spent the night shoveling out
Here, U.N. officials’ increasingly dire Now cut off from much of the world and at least 98,000 children under water and mud after the roof leaked
warnings that a hunger crisis is grow- by flooding that has affected some five could die of it. in a recent snow. With early snows
ing around the world are becoming 1 million people, many South Su- this year, temperatures have dropped
reality. danese have seen farming and other By the end of the year, 41% of the below freezing.
food-gathering activities ripped apart. south’s 8 million people are expected
U.N. agencies have warned that some The challenges are so numerous that to have significant gaps in food con- Her 12 children, all 10 or younger, sat
250 million people in 20 countries are even “plastic sheets are not available, sumption, up from 25%. The situa- with her, hungry and shivering in the
threatened with sharply spiking mal- as they had largely been used for the tion could be worse in Sanaa and the cold breeze. They were all thin. One
nutrition or even famine in coming previous flood response,” the U.N. north, home to more than 20 million daughter, Neamat, around 4, had the
months. The United Nations hu- humanitarian agency said this week. people. The U.N. is currently con- withered look that suggests malnutri-
manitarian office this week released COVID-19 has restricted trade and ducting a similar survey there. tion.
$100 million in emergency funding travel. Food prices rose. Post-war un- Sanaa’s main hospital, al-Sabeen, re- Makai fled seven months ago from
to seven countries most at risk of rest remains deadly; gunmen recently ceived over 180 cases of malnutrition her home in southern Helmand
famine — Yemen, Afghanistan, South fired on WFP boats carrying supplies. and acute malnutrition in the past province after her husband was killed
Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo, and three months, well over its capacities, in a crossfire between government
Burkina Faso. “The convergence of conflict, macro- according Amin al-Eizari, a nurse. forces and the Taliban. By begging,
economic crisis, recurrent flooding as she scrounges up enough rice or hard
But David Beasley, head of the World well as the indirect impacts of COV- At least five children died at the hos- bread to give her kids one meal a day.
Food Program, says billions in new ID create a ‘perfect storm,‘” the coun- pital during that period, with more She eats every other day.
aid are needed. Without it, “we are try director for the CARE aid group, dying outside, he said.
going to have famines of biblical pro- Rosalind Crowther, said in an email. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio “The weather in winter will get cold-
portions in 2021,” he said in an Asso- “Flooding and violence have led to Guterres on Friday urged parties with er,” she said. “If I don’t get help, my
ciated Press interview last week. massive displacement, low crop pro- influence in Yemen to take action to children may get sick, or God forbid,
duction and loss of livelihoods and “stave off catastrophe” or risk a trag- I may lose any of them. We are in a
In multiple countries, the coronavi- livestock.” In the Arabian Peninsula, edy with “consequences that will re- bad condition.”
rus pandemic has added a new bur- Yemen is on a “countdown to catas- verberate indefinitely into the future."
den on top of the impact of ongo- trophe,” Beasley, of the WFP, warned
ing wars, pushing more people into the U.N. Security Council last week.
poverty, unable to afford food. At the “Famine is truly a real and dangerous
same time, international aid funding possibility and the warning lights are
has fallen short, weakening a safety ... flashing red — as red can be,” he
net that keeps people alive. said.

In Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, Ze- For years, Yemen has been the cen-
maray Hakimi said he can only give ter of the world’s worst food crisis,
his children one meal a day, usually driven by the destructive civil war be-
hard, black bread dunked in tea. He tween Iranian-backed Houthi rebels
lost his work as a taxi driver after con- who in 2014 took over the north and
tracting COVID-19 and now waits the capital, Sanaa, and a Saudi-led co-
daily on the street for day laborer alition backing the government in the
work that rarely comes. south.
When his children complain of hun- International aid pulled it from the
ger, he said, “I tell them to bear it. edge of famine two years ago. But
One day maybe we can get something the threat has surged back this year,
better.” fueled by increasing violence and a
currency collapse that put food out of