Covid, conflict and climate worsening hunger in Africa

NAIROBI: Hunger in Africa has worsened significantly with an almost 50 percent rise in those considered undernourished compared to 2014, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other agencies said on Tuesday.

A new report says the number going hungry across Africa reached nearly 282 million in 2020 -- more than one-fifth of the population -- an increase of 89 million compared to just six years earlier.

Most of that deterioration occurred between 2019 and 2020, with economic downturns caused by the coronavirus pandemic blamed for exacerbating the chief causes of hunger. "After a long period of improvement between 2000 and 2013, hunger has worsened substantially" across the continent, said a new report on food security and nutrition released by the FAO, the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. The report looked at trends between 2014 to 2020 but the picture was expected to prove bleaker in 2021 "with no easing of hunger’s main drivers".