Afghanistan and Yemen face famine in 2023: UN report
“The number of people facing acute levels of hunger in Afghanistan rose to 6.6 million, and in 2019 the number of Afghans suffering from extreme levels of hunger reached 2.5 million, but reached 6.6 million in 2022, with Afghanistan and Yemen facing a very bleak future in 2023 due to fears of famine, Save the Children said in its report.”
Extreme levels of hunger
According to the report in the UK newspaper The Observer, the number of people facing severe levels of hunger has risen by almost 57 per cent to 25.3 million from 16.1 million since 2019 in the eight worst-affected countries amid an unprecedented global hunger crisis with growing pockets of famine-like conditions. The hardest-hit countries are Afghanistan , Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, with Afghanistan having the highest number of people facing acute levels of hunger.
“In Afghanistan, we find children are so hungry that they are unable to remember what they have been taught in school, and as a result of malnutrition, they are also more vulnerable to life-threatening diseases like cholera,” said Nora Hassanein, acting director of Save the Children in Afghanistan. Adding: “We are also seeing a worrying increase in harmful coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labor, and responding to this growing need is impossible without the full participation of women in the response, and we are very concerned about these findings in the context of the current suspension of programs”.
