hunger

The conflict in Tigray compounded by climate-fueled locust infestations and coronavirus has left millions of people in desperate need of humanitarian aid yet access to those affected continues to be restricted, warned Oxfam today. 

In response to the UN recently launched Global Humanitarian Overview, estimating some 235 million people across the globe will be in need of life-saving support in 2021, Oxfam and 6 aid agencies said it is vital that they have unhindered access to those most in need and humanitarian appeals are fully funded. 

The threat of “COVID famines” and widespread extreme hunger are setting off every alarm bell within the international community, but so far sluggish funding of the UN's appeal is hampering humanitarian agencies’ efforts to deliver urgent assistance to people in need.

Commenting on the publication of a new UN Report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, which highlights that 60 million more people are hungry today than they were five years ago, and three billion men, women and children – over a third of humanity – cannot afford enough healthy food to eat, Rashmi Mistry, head of Oxfam's Grow Campaign, said: "The UN report is highly alarming. It shows our global food system is unravelling at the seams."

As many as 12,000 people could die per day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to COVID-19, potentially more than could die from the disease, warned Oxfam in a new briefing published today. The global observed daily mortality rate for COVID-19 reached its highest recorded point in April 2020 at just over 10,000 deaths per day.

The EU’s response to COVID-19 in the recovery package, and the Farm-to-Fork Strategy, are opportunities to help fix the broken global food system.

COVID-19 is deepening the hunger crisis in the world’s hunger hotspots and creating new epicentres of hunger across the globe. While governments must act to contain the spread of this deadly disease, Oxfam is also calling for urgent action to end this hunger crisis and build fairer, more robust, and sustainable food systems.

A year and a half since Covid-19, deaths from hunger are outpacing the virus. Ongoing conflict, combined with the economic disruptions of the pandemic and an escalating climate crisis, have pushed millions people into extreme levels of food insecurity, some to the brink of starvation. Join us in helping communities overcome the #HungerVirus.

The Horn, East and Central Africa are facing a profoundly alarming hunger crisis. More than 66 million people are in need of humanitarian aid as climate extremes have caused widespread food and water shortages. Oxfam is on the ground responding but we urgently need your help to save more lives.

Hunger is escalating as the United Nation’s humanitarian response in Mozambique is less than half funded.