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	Urgent funding needed to avert Famine in four countries threatening 20 million people by UN News, Famine Early Warning Systems Network   Sept. 2017   Nearly seven months after the United Nations issued an urgent call for action to counter the threat of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, north-east Nigeria and Yemen, global efforts have kept that crisis at bay but millions of people still suffer and many are dying at this very moment, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned today.   'To keep famine at bay doesn't mean to keep suffering at bay', Mr. Guterres said at a high-level event on famine prevention and response, organized by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).   'So, millions and millions of people suffer, millions and millions of people are not food secure, and we have people dying at this very moment', he added.   The Secretary-General noted that since the urgent call for action was issued in February, humanitarian agencies and their partners are reaching close to 30 million people each month with life-saving food, livelihood support, health, water and sanitation and nutrition assistance. However, in each of the four countries, people's needs have deepened since February.   In South Sudan, 6 million people are now severely food insecure - an increase of one million, and more than half of the population.   In Somalia, 3.1 million people are now unable to meet their daily food needs - an increase of 200,000 since the call to action.   In Yemen, the scene of the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world, 17 million people are now food insecure, 6.8 million of whom are one step away from famine.   And in north-eastern Nigeria, around 5.2 million people are severely food insecure and in need of emergency assistance. Of an estimated 450,000 children who will suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year, one in five is likely to die without specialized treatment.   Unfortunately, despite the generosity of some donors, $1.8 billion is still urgently needed, Mr. Guterres said.   Humanitarian aid is saving lives, but a long-term solution depends on ending and preventing conflict, a most important factor behind these crises, he added.   June 2017   Food insecurity threatens children in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia - UNICEF   Calling for immediate humanitarian action amid rising malnutrition, thirst and disease, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned today that millions of lives are at risk in four countries stretching from Africa to the Middle East.   The welcome announcement of an end to famine conditions in South Sudan earlier this week should not distract from the severe food insecurity that continues to put the lives of millions of children at risk in north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, said UNICEF.   'The crisis is far from over and we must continue to scale up our response and insist on unconditional humanitarian access, otherwise the progress made could be rapidly undone', said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director for Emergency Programmes.   There is no room for complacency, he continued. 'While famine has been reversed in South Sudan, the lives of millions of children are still hanging by a thread'.   In north-east Nigeria, Boko Haram violence continues to contribute to large-scale population displacement, limit market activity and restrict normal livelihoods. Around 5.2 million people remain severely food insecure, with 450,000 children expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition this year.   With deteriorating road conditions and flooding making populations harder to reach, the rainy season will further complicate the humanitarian response and raise the risk of water-borne diseases.   The fragile Somali population, battered by conflict, is facing further exposure to prolonged drought. An estimated 275,000 children will suffer from severe acute malnutrition in 2017, making them nine times more likely to die of diseases such as cholera, acute watery diarrhoea and measles, which are spreading through the country.   After a scaled-up humanitarian response, famine in South Sudan has eased, according to new analysis released this week. However, the situation remains dire across a country where some six million people struggle to find enough food each day - the highest level of food insecurity ever experienced there. This year, an estimated 276,000 South Sudanese children will be severely malnourished.   In Yemen, an estimated 400,000 children are severely malnourished as an unprecedented cholera outbreak - with over 175,000 suspected cases and more than 1,000 deaths to date has complicated the ongoing humanitarian response.   Some of the children who have become ill or died from cholera were already suffering from malnutrition, which had weakened their immune systems.   Moreover, Yemen's healthcare system is on the brink of collapse, with hospitals and treatment centres struggling to cope amid dwindling medicines and medical supplies. As the conflict continues, famine is a possible worst-case scenario.   Beyond these four countries, food, water and health crises are endangering hundreds of thousands of children across the Greater Horn of Africa, the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel.   This year, UNICEF is working with partners to provide therapeutic and life-saving food treatment to severely malnourished children in Nigeria (314,000), South Sudan (200,000), Somalia (200,000) and Yemen (320,000). http://bit.ly/2tbZcy5   http://uni.cf/2uKwRR4 http://uni.cf/2oSNXIs http://www.unicef.org/appeals/ http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/   June 2017   Risk of Famine persists, reports the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. (FEWS NET)   An unprecedented 81 million people are in need of emergency food assistance during 2017, and a credible risk of Famine persists in Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, and South Sudan. This risk of Famine is primarily driven by conflict and restrictions on humanitarian access.   Additional contributions to emergency appeals, particularly in these four countries, are urgently needed to prevent large-scale loss of life. However, Famine risk will not fully recede until substantive efforts are made to resolve ongoing conflict and improve access.   In early 2017, FEWS NET estimated that 70 million people would require emergency food assistance over the course of the year, primarily due to the impacts of conflict and drought on households access to food. Since then, a number of key events have occurred, including:   In the Horn of Africa, the March to May rainy season was much drier than anticipated. Rainfall totals were more than 30 percent below average across large areas of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and more than 50 percent below average in the worst-affected areas of these countries.   Conflict continues to have negative impacts on livelihoods, market functioning, and humanitarian response in South Sudan, Yemen, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, CAR, Afghanistan, and DRC.   Severe outbreaks of cholera, acute watery diarrhea, and other communicable diseases are ongoing in Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Nigeria, contributing to elevated levels of acute malnutrition and mortality.   New data from large-scale food security assessments in Yemen, South Sudan, and Somalia have allowed analysis to be updated and refined, improving estimates of the food insecure population.   Given the developments outlined above, FEWS NET has revised its estimates of peak 2017 food assistance needs from 70 to 81 million people. This revised estimate is 70 percent higher than 2015, and 20 percent higher than last year.   Peak needs occur at different times of the year in different countries. Peak 2017 needs in Southern Africa and Central Asia (21 million people) occurred between January and March and have now declined somewhat due to ongoing harvests. However, peak needs have either persisted (e.g., Yemen, northeast Nigeria) or are expected in the coming months in all other regions (60 million people).   At the country level, the largest number of people in need of emergency food assistance during the remainder of 2017 are in Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.   Needs in 2017 are not only uncommonly large but the severity of food insecurity is extreme in the worst-affected countries. As of early June, a credible risk of Famine during 2017 persists in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria.   These four countries, along with Ethiopia, are already experiencing Emergency (IPC Phase 4). Emergency is characterized by extreme food gaps, very high levels of acute malnutrition, and excess mortality, particularly among children.   Since the beginning of the year, emergency food assistance has increased in some of the worst-affected countries. This increase has been notable in South Sudan's Unity State. Nonetheless, large gaps remain.   On average, halfway through 2017, humanitarian appeals are only 36 percent funded in the four countries at risk of Famine.   Funding for food security programming is especially low in Nigeria and Yemen, where contributions to date cover only 24 percent and 20 percent of needs, respectively. Additional resources are urgently required to fund critical food, nutrition, WASH, and health responses. Nonetheless, the primary driver of Famine risk is ongoing conflict and the related restrictions on humanitarian access. Until parties to the conflict make substantive efforts to end fighting, the possibility of Famine is likely to persist. http://bit.ly/2tEdFnh   * FAO Fighting Famine: http://www.fao.org/emergencies/crisis/fightingfamine/en/ http://www.fao.org/giews/country-analysis/external-assistance/en/ http://www.fao.org/emergencies/en/   May 2017   As four countries face famine, world 'must step up now' says top UN food security forum.   With famine looming in four countries, the United Nations-backed Committee on World Food Security (CFS) stressed today the need to rally support for both immediate relief to people at risk and for longer-term initiatives.   'Governments, civic groups and businesses need to rally support for both immediate relief to people in countries at risk of famine and longer-term initiatives that will allow them to recover and restore their livelihoods', Ambassador Amira Gornass, Chair of the CFS, said today in Rome.   Famine has been declared in some counties of South Sudan, and the number of people close to sliding from emergency to disaster is perilously high in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and other UN agencies.   The risk of famine in all four countries - where some 30 million people are uncertain as to where their next meal will come from or rely on humanitarian assistance is mostly induced by conflict, which has disrupted food production, blocked aid and commodities from accessing vulnerable communities and driven food prices beyond what people can afford.   'I urge you to take action now to relieve the impending suffering and to prevent further damage to livelihoods', Ms. Gornass stated.   Reiterating calls made by Secretary-General, the Ambassador wrote: 'The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the primary mechanism for the coordination of humanitarian assistance, emergency and relief responses, can meet immediate needs if adequately funded.   Everyone should do what they can to support the IASC and to mobilize the necessary resources to enable emergency and relief activities to continue', she added.   While emergency relief is an immediate priority, plans for medium and longer-term assistance to support recovery and prevent future famines must be supported, the CFS Chair emphasized.   'The affected populations of these four countries need our help now. We, as the international community, need to act urgently and come together with effective actions', she said.   The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is the foremost international platform for all stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. http://bit.ly/2rgYkYF http://bit.ly/2pKGqgY   Apr 2017   #FacingFamine: Update on Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Northeast Nigeria - Report from the World Food Programme   Over Twenty million people in 4 countries - Northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen - are at high risk of famine, and a further 10 million are currently in crisis. Famine has already been declared in two counties in South Sudan.   Some of the most vulnerable people in the hardest-hit areas are already dying from starvation and disease in the four countries.   It is vital to act before famine is declared. In Somalia, half of the 260,000 people who perished between 2010 and 2012 had died before famine was declared in July 2011.   Prevention works. Malnutrition rates have declined where we or partners had sustained access and delivered food and nutritional supplies for children under age five.   Conflict is the principal driver of the crisis, sparking food insecurity, disrupting markets, limiting trade, destroying assets, leaving households without income or means to access food and displacing whole communities. Eight million people have been displaced as a result of these conflicts.   An associated problem is humanitarian access. A key trend is that the most vulnerable, displaced people are frequently the hardest to reach. For example, in March, Rapid Response teams from WFP-UNICEF could not reach an estimated 100,000 people in NE Nigeria, due to insecurity.   Humanitarian agencies need the international community to exert political pressure to secure full and sustained access to all those in need.   In recent history, the world has not faced this number of multiple food security crises, with four countries facing famine all at once.   Famines can be averted. When they occur, they are an acknowledgement of collective failure by everyone: the United Nations, partners, donors and governments. It is much less costly to avert famine, than to respond to it. Additionally, long-term development gains are lost.   Conflict and denial of access prevents aid from reaching many people in need, but a lack of funds also has a major impact on lives, forcing WFP and partners to 'prioritize', essentially deciding who among the most vulnerable receives limited aid, and who does not.   An immediate injection of funds is required to avert a catastrophe; otherwise, many thousands of people will die from hunger, livelihoods will be lost and communities destroyed.   http://publications.wfp.org/2017/mapping-hunger/index.html http://www1.wfp.org/fighting-famine http://bit.ly/2pjNCPP http://www.wfp.org/videos/archive http://www.wfp.org/news/news-releases http://sdg.iisd.org/news/un-agencies-appeal-for-support-to-stop-acute-food-crises-driven-by-conflict-and-drought/ http://www.acaps.org/themes/famine http://bit.ly/2opabzu http://bit.ly/2xYsjVP   http://interactive.unocha.org/emergency/2017_famine/resources/ http://bit.ly/2unhkTW http://www.unocha.org/story/humanitarian-assistance-works-and-can-pull-people-back-famine-un-humanitarian-chief http://reliefweb.int/ http://www.unocha.org/media-centre/news-updates http://www.mercycorps.org/articles/nigeria-somalia-south-sudan-yemen/field-update-threat-famine-africa-and-yemen http://archive.irinnews.org/multimedia/food-aid-2018/index.html http://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2018/03/05/how-declare-famine-primer-south-sudan http://www.rescue.org/topic/global-famine http://starvationaccountability.org/ http://hilalelver.org/media_coverage/famine-watch/ Visit the related web page
	The vicious cycle of conflict and hunger must be broken by World Food Programme (WFP)   Aug. 2018   The vicious cycle of conflict and hunger must be broken if we are to achieve a world where everyone has enough to eat.   Conflict forces millions of people to abandon their land, homes and jobs - putting them at risk of hunger or even famine.   At the same time, hunger may contribute to conflict when coupled with poverty, unemployment or economic hardship.   The devastating impact of conflict   YEMEN   The country is on the brink of famine with 18 million people not knowing where their next meal is coming from. WFP is providing food assistance for those most urgently in need.   BANGLADESH   Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing violence in Myanmar are facing food shortages. WFP has provided food (including rice, pulses and oil) to almost 900,000 people.   SYRIA   Seven years of war mean an estimated 6.5 million people not having enough food. WFP is providing food assistance to 3 million people, having been forced to scale down from 3.8 million due to limited funding.   NIGERIA   A total 2.99 million people are facing hunger in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. WFP is distributing food or where markets are functioning cash to more than 1.1 million people monthly in those states.   SOUTH SUDAN   While prompt humanitarian intervention prevented famine from spreading across the country, 7.1 million people that is more than half the population are severely food insecure, not knowing where their next meal will come from.   IRAQ   Although many displaced Iraqis are now returning home every month, hundreds of thousands are still living in camps with few possibilities to earn an income enabling them to put food on the table. In addition, an estimated quarter of a million Syrians have sought refuge in northern Iraq, placing additional pressure on limited resources.   SOMALIA   2.7 million people face dangerous levels of hunger, with over half a million on the brink of famine. WFP reached 3.1 million people in the worst-affected areas in 2017.   CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC   Violence has uprooted more than a million people. Renewed fighting in the southeast, compounded by bad roads, have made it difficult to reach many areas and forced WFP to reduce the distribution cycle in some places.   THE DEMOCRACTIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO   With 7.7 million people severely hungry almost half of whom in the Greater Kasai region and 4.6 million children acutely malnourished, WFP is increasing emergency assistance to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. WFP and partners are providing rations containing cereals, pulses, vegetable oil and salt to those most at risk.   WFP Executive Director David Beasley who has visited several countries affected by conflict since he took office, including Bangladesh, Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen says: 'We have far too much violence and conflict, and that is why we have more people who are hungry and in need of assistance. I call on the people in power, the people with guns, to stop the fighting now.   'I saw people's wounds with my own eyes and I heard their stories with my own ears. They were frightened, hungry and malnourished after enduring a nightmare that most people cannot even imagine. If we are truly going to end hunger, we must stop this kind of inhumanity'.   WFP needs up to US$6.8 billion this year to feed over 80 million people. In Bangladesh for example we urgently need funds to support one million people in Cox's Bazar region. In Yemen our operations are little more than 50 percent funded. Meanwhile shortages in South Sudan are mirrored in neighbouring countries where refugees have sought shelter, forcing WFP at times to cut rations in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.   * People living in countries affected by ongoing crises such as conflict are more than twice as likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere. The number of people living in countries affected by conflict - 489 million. The number of stunted children in conflict-affected countries - 122 million out of 155 million.   http://www.wfp.org/news/conflict-driven-hunger-worsens   Mar. 2017   Global report on food crises 2017   Globally, 108 million people in 2016 were reported to be facing Crisis level food insecurity or worse (IPC Phase 3 and above). This represents a 35 percent increase compared to 2015 when the figure was almost 80 million.   The acute and wide-reaching effects of conflicts left significant numbers of food insecure people in need of urgent assistance in Yemen (17 million); Syria (7.0 million); South Sudan (4.9 million); Somalia (2.9 million); northeast Nigeria (4.7 million), Burundi (2.3 million) and Central African Republic (2 million).   The immediate outlook points to worsening conditions in some locations, with risk of famine in isolated areas of northeast Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.   Conflict causes widespread displacement (internal and external), protracting food insecurity and placing a burden on host communities.   The populations worst affected are those of Syria (6.3 million Internally Displaced People) and Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries (4.8 million); Iraq (3.1 million); Yemen (3.2 million), South Sudan (3 million), Somalia (2.1 million) and northeast Nigeria (2.1 million).   In some countries, food security has been undermined by El Nino, which largely manifested in drought conditions that damaged agricultural livelihoods. The countries most affected are in eastern and southern Africa and include Somalia, Ethiopia (9.7 million), Madagascar (0.8 million in the Grand Sud), Malawi (6.7 million), Mozambique (1.9 million) and Zimbabwe (4.1 million).   Projections for early 2017 indicate an increase in the severity of food insecurity in these regions. This is particularly the case in southern and south-eastern Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.   Record staple food prices, notably in some southern African countries, Nigeria and South Sudan, also severely constrained food access for vulnerable populations, acutely aggravating food insecurity and the risk of malnutrition.   El Nino-induced weather patterns and conflicts were the main drivers of intensified food insecurity in 2016. The persistent nature of these drivers, and their associated impacts, has weakened households capacity to cope, undermining their resilience and ability to recover from future shocks.   The food crises in 2016 were both widespread and severe, affecting entire national populations, such as in Yemen, or causing acute damage in localized areas, such as in northeast Nigeria. These shocks were not bound by national borders and the spillover effects had a significant impact on neighbouring countries.   The 108 million people reported to be facing severe food insecurity in 2016 represent those suffering from higher-than-usual acute malnutrition and a broad lack of minimally adequate food even with external assistance. This includes households that can cope with their minimum food needs only by depleting seeds, livestock and agricultural assets needed to produce food in the future. Without robust and sustained action, people struggling with severe food insecurity risk slipping into an even worse situation and eventual starvation.   'The numbers tell a deeply worrying story with more than 100 million people severely food-insecure, a level of suffering which is driven by conflict and climate change. Hunger exacerbates crisis, creating ever greater instability and insecurity. What is a food security challenge today becomes tomorrow's security challenge', said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin. 'It is a race against time the world must act now to save the lives and livelihoods of the millions at the brink of starvation'.   http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/108-million-people-world-face-severe-food-insecuritysituation-worsening Visit the related web page
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