UN: 135M people faced acute food insecurity in 2019

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Some 135 million people across 55 countries and territories experienced acute food insecurity in 2019, according to a UN food body report released Tuesday.

The annual Global Report on Food Crises by UN's Food and Agriculture Organization showed that more than half of acutely food-insecure people in crisis or worse, 73 million, live in Africa. This was followed by the Middle East and Asia with 43 million, and Latin America and the Caribbean with 18.5 million.

Conflict and/or insecurity was still the main driver of food crises in 2019, but weather extremes and economic shocks became increasingly significant, the report underlined.

It estimated that 75 million children were stunted in the 55 countries analyzed due to limited access to sufficient dietary energy, nutritionally diverse diets, clean drinking water, sanitation and health care.

The number of acutely malnourished children under 5 years stood at 17 million last year, it noted.

Touching on coronavirus pandemic's effects, the report noted a global recession will majorly disrupt food supply chains this year.

The pandemic may devastate livelihoods and food security, especially in fragile contexts and particularly for the most vulnerable people working in the informal agricultural and nonagricultural sectors, it said.

Acute food insecurity is when a person’s inability to consume adequate food puts their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.