In 2023, food security in the world will worsen due to conflict.

Food insecurity has worsened globally in 2023, with nearly 282 million people in need of emergency assistance due to conflicts, especially in Gaza and Sudan, as well as extreme weather events and economic shocks, 16 UN and humanitarian organizations warned on Wednesday.

That’s 24 million more than in 2022, according to the Food Security Information Network’s (FSIN) latest global report on food crises, for which forecasts for the current year remain “grim.”

This is also the fifth consecutive year of increases in the number of people experiencing acute food insecurity, which means a situation in which a person’s life or livelihood is in immediate danger because they are unable to eat well.

700,000 people on the verge of starvation

This year-over-year deterioration is partly due to the expansion of the areas covered by the report. This follows “new or intensified shocks” as well as “a marked deterioration in key food crisis situations such as Sudan and the Gaza Strip,” Fleur Wouters, deputy director of the UN agriculture agency’s Office of Emergency Management and Resilience, explains to AFP. FAO.

In 2023, some 700,000 people were on the brink of famine, including 600,000 in the Gaza Strip. The figure has since risen further in the Palestinian territory, ravaged by famine and war, to 1.1 million.

Since the publication of this report in 2016 by the Global Network Against Food Crises, an alliance of UN organizations, the European Union, the United States and humanitarian organizations, “the number of people experiencing food insecurity has increased from 108 million to 282 people.” million, while the prevalence (proportion of the population affected in the relevant areas) increased from 11% to 22%,” adds Fleur Wouters.

Since then, food crises have continued in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Syria and Yemen, she notes.

“Funding does not meet needs”

“In a world of plenty, children die of hunger. Wars, climate chaos and a cost-of-living crisis, combined with inadequate action, will leave nearly 300 million people facing acute food crises in 2023,” laments UN Secretary-General António Guterres in the foreword to the report.

“Funding does not meet the needs. Governments must increase the resources available for sustainable development,” he argues. Moreover, the costs of distributing aid have increased.

Humanitarian access will be critical in promoting food security

In 2024, developments “will depend on the cessation of hostilities,” notes Fleur Wouters. “Once humanitarian access is possible” to Gaza and Sudan, aid could, for example, “quickly” alleviate the food crisis there, she said.

She said there was also great uncertainty about Haiti, “where in the Artibonite Valley, the country’s breadbasket, armed groups have seized farmland and stolen crops.”

The El Niño weather phenomenon could also “lead to severe drought in West Africa and southern Africa,” the official adds.

Insecurity and conflict at the heart of the problem

According to the report, situations of conflict or insecurity were the leading cause of acute food insecurity in 20 countries or territories in 2023, affecting 135 million people. This is followed by economic shocks (the main cause for 75 million people in 21 countries) and extreme climate events such as floods or droughts (72 million people in 18 countries).

“The fall in global food prices has not affected low-income countries that rely on imports,” the report notes. At the same time, “the persistence of high public debt has limited the ability of governments” to try to mitigate the impact of soaring food prices.

The situation improved in 2023 in 17 countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine. “If we intervene to support agriculture, it will be possible to lift people out of food insecurity,” says Fleur Wouters.