International warnings of food insecurity in the world and calls to address the causes

The World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the European Union have warned that the number of people facing acute food insecurity who need urgent life-saving food assistance and livelihood support is increasing at an alarming rate.
A joint statement issued today, Wednesday, by the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the European Union stressed that addressing the root causes of food crises has become more urgent than ever.
The statement was based on the annual report of the Global Network Against Food Crises, an international coalition of the United Nations, the European Union, governmental and non-governmental agencies, which stated that about 193 million people in 53 countries or territories suffered in 2021 from acute food insecurity or worse levels (phase 3 to 5 from the classification of food insecurity).
The statement indicated that this represents an increase of about 40 million people compared to 2020, explaining that among them, more than half a million people were classified in southern Madagascar, South Sudan and Yemen, and they are in the fifth stage of the classification, which is the highest in food insecurity.
The statement noted that these worrying trends are the result of many factors that feed on each other, starting from conflict to environmental, climatic and economic crises, as well as health crises with poverty and inequality as fixed causes.
The statement pointed out that the report found that the war had already exposed the interconnected nature and fragility of global food systems with dire consequences for global food security, adding that countries already dealing with high levels of acute hunger were particularly vulnerable to the risks created by the war in Eastern Europe particularly because of their dependence The severe impact on food imports and agricultural inputs and their vulnerability to global food price shocks.