UNITED NATIONS— The U.N. program’s chief David Beasley told the U.N. Security Council that the response to his warning five months ago of a potential “hunger pandemic” had averted famine and kept people alive but the work wasn’t done. The WFP and its partners were going all out to reach as many as 138 million people this year, the biggest scale-up in our history. The 270 million people marching toward the brink of starvation.. He warned famine was possible in up to three dozen countries and could overwhelm places already weakened by conflict.
Beasley cited Congo where violence has increased and instability already has forced 15.5 million people near starvation. He also said a lack of funding has forced cutbacks in assistance to feed people in Yemen, which faces the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe. And in Nigeria and South Sudan, millions of more people have become food insecure because of the pandemic, he said. They need $4.9 billion to feed 30 million people who will die without the program’s assistance for a year.
“I am not opposed to people making money, but humanity is facing the greatest crisis any of us have seen in our lifetimes,It’s time for those who have the most to step up, to help those who have the least in this extraordinary time in world history.” Beasley said.
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