NEW YORK — At least 155 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity in 2020 because of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks linked in part to COVID-19, a UN-partnered flagship report said on Wednesday.

It’s been five years since hunger levels were this bad across 55 countries under review, according to the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC), which noted that 20 million more people went hungry last year than in 2019.

Countries in Africa remained “disproportionally affected”, it said, adding that conflict pushed almost 100 million people into acute food insecurity, followed by economic shocks (40 million) and weather extremes (16 million).

“Conflict and hunger are mutually reinforcing. We need to tackle hunger and conflict together to solve either...We must do everything we can to end this vicious cycle. Addressing hunger is a foundation for stability and peace”, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, writing in the report.

Basing its assessments on the IPC scale for Acute Food Insecurity, the GNAFC network — which includes the UN World Food Programme (WFP) — revealed that the worst-affected countries were Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen.

Across these countries, around 133,000 people were at IPC5 — the highest level of need — and they required immediate action “to avert widespread death and a collapse of livelihoods”, the Network’s report said.

At least another 28 million people were “one step away from starvation” — IPC4 — across 38 countries and territories, where urgent action saved lives and livelihoods, and prevented famine from spreading.

Close to 98 million people facing acute food insecurity in 2020 — or two out of three — were on the African continent.

Not only Africa

Other parts of the world were not spared, with countries including Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and Haiti featuring among the 10 worst food crises last year.

The authors of the report — the United Nations, the European Union as well as government and non-government agencies — also noted that 39 countries and territories had experienced food crises in the last five years.

In these countries and territories, the population affected by high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC3 or worse) increased from 94 to 147 million people, between 2016 and 2020, the global network said.

It added that in the 55 food-crisis countries and territories covered by the report, more than 75 million children under five were stunted and at least 15 million showed signs of wasting in 2020.

While conflict will remain the major driver of food crises in 2021, COVID-19 and related containment measures and weather extremes will continue to exacerbate acute food insecurity in fragile economies.

Coronavirus impact

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food system and the need for more equitable, sustainable and resilient systems to nutritiously and consistently feed 8.5 billion people by 2030.

“A radical transformation of our agri-food systems is needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, said the European Union (EU), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) — founding members of the Global Network — together with the US international development agency, USAID, in a statement.

In March 2021, UN chief Mr. Guterres established a famine-prevention task force, led by UN emergency relief chief Mark Lowcock, along with FAO and WFP and with the support of OCHA and other UN agencies as well as NGO partners.

The Task Force aims to bring coordinated, high-level attention to famine prevention and mobilize support to the most affected countries. — UN news