Hunger on the Rise in Africa, FAO Cries out

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has lamented that Africa witnessed over 90 conflicts in 2018 alone.

The United Nations body, while insisting that investing in resilience and food security is key to peace, further lamented that conflicts in ten African countries have left millions of people in need of urgent food assistance and subsequently made thousands of people to quickly flee their homes and involuntarily abandon their means of livelihood.

In an emailed message issued by the Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa of the FAO, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, on Thursday, he lamented that hunger is on the rise in Africa.

According to him, “In a region beset with conflict, the uptick of numbers paint a grim foreboding. Hunger is on the rise again in Africa, which is reversing the gains as well as derailing the efforts made in the last few years.

“Recent years brought recurrent conflicts in the region. In 2018 alone, there were over 90 conflicts in Africa, a quarter of such occurrences globally. Conflicts in ten African countries left millions of people in need of urgent food assistance and thousands to quickly flee their homes and involuntarily abandon their means of livelihood.

 

“Most of these livelihoods are dependent on agriculture and the emergence of conflict has life-changing and serious implications. For people who rely on agriculture, conflicts destroy food systems, decimate crops and livestock resources, and cause loss of assets and incomes. These trigger food insecurity, malnutrition and hunger.”

He added that: “People living in countries affected by conflict are more likely to be food insecure and malnourished. For some African countries, the prevalence of undernourishment is about two and a half times higher in countries affected by a protracted crisis than in other development contexts.

“Nutrition outcomes are also worse in conflict situations, where almost 122 million, or 75 percent of stunted children are under the age of five.”

Gabriel  lamented that: “Additionally, conflicts harm national economies. Agriculture in Africa contributes a sizeable proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); employs more than half of the total labour force, and provides livelihood incomes for smallholder farmers, who usually constitute approximately 80 percent of the total population.”

He said: “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for a transformative approach pointing to an improved collaboration on conflict prevention and resolution. The African Union Agenda 2063 likewise prioritises peace and security to reposition Africa on a sustainable route of transformation and development.”