View previous stories
	Refugees and internally displaced people most vulnerable in food crisis by UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), WFP, agencies   Representatives from UN agencies and several countries have called for more substantive action to support refugees and internally displaced people amid the ongoing global food crisis.   Co-hosted by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations, a panel discussion explored solutions to address the food shortage and increase the capacity of refugees. It came ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on the global food crisis and protection.   Food insecurity has become an enormous problem. In 2019, WFP estimated that 145 million people were facing acute food insecurity. Now the organization predicates 345 million people are facing insecurity. The combination of climate change shocks, COVID-19, and conflict has pushed several countries, such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and Yemen, to a very real risk of famine.   Action on food insecurity today is “more important than ever”, Valerie Guarnieri, WFP Assistant Executive Director said . Among those particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of food insecurity are refugees and internally displaced people numbering some 100 million people.   Raouf Mazou, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Operations, explained that the increased vulnerability of refugees is primarily to the nature of displacement and the loss of community safety networks that accompany it.   “When fleeing many refugees sell or are forced to leave behind their assets their journey to safety is often full of dangers. Family and community support systems breakdown. They usually lose their income and often find themselves with no option but to employ harmful strategies as coping mechanisms.”   Coping mechanisms refer to tactics a family or community employs to compensate for a loss in income. In response to COVID-19 lockdowns, UNHCR reported instances of transactional sex, early marriage, child recruitment, and trafficking in person across its operations.   For Mazou, these challenges point to a need to center protection in efforts to address food security by governments and NGOs.   Special attention must also be paid to the specific plights of women and girls, he argued. In searching for food, displaced women and girls are at an increased risk of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, and child and forced marriages.   In Somalian regions affected by drought, gender-based violence has gone up 200 percent since 2021, Mazaou noted. He pointed to several factors that may lead to violence when a community is facing food insecurity.   “Food insecurity increases the risk of violence, neglect and exploitation and abuse of children. Girls may drop out of school at a higher percentage rate than boys when families are unable to afford school fees for all their children. Household sent children in search of food work on pasture for livestock exposing them to increased risks.”   The food crisis is also affecting the ability of host countries to provide for refugees.   Ethiopia, the third largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, is on the brink of famine. The country is reckoning with the historic drought hitting the Horn of Africa region, which is severely threatening its food networks.   Yoseph Kassaye, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the UN, underscored the crisis and its strain on the nation’s ability to protect refugees.   The drought has wiped away important nutrition sources that refugees rely on, such as cattle and water wells. Kassaye explained that the lack of natural resources means refugees can only rely on humanitarian assistance.   Yet, this is also at risk. As a result of funding constraints, the WFP had to reduce its rations for refugees in Ethiopia by 50 percent.   “It is indeed troubling to learn that the level of support by international humanitarian agencies is reported to have decreased due to the funding shortages. In our view, urgent measures are needed if we’re to respond to the people in need of assistance in a timely and effective manner,” Kassaye said.   Citing related statistics, Guarnieri emphasized the importance of more humanitarian aid. But, she also underscored initiatives that increased the capacity of refugee populations and host countries.   “We have to do everything as WFP and UNHCR, as an international community to meet these urgent food needs and these desperate protection needs, but we’re never going to be able to catch up with the situation unless we are also investing in building the resilience in supporting the livelihoods and strengthening the self-reliance of populations who have forcibly displaced population who are seeking refuge in other countries.”   She also stressed the power of collaboration across sectors. One example of this was the WFP-UNHCR’s Joint Hub, a collaboration between agencies and governments to support refugees through innovative solutions and policies.   Established in 2020, the hub has worked on several projects. One with the Government of Mauritania resulted in Malian refugees being included in its national social protection plan—making refugees eligible for cash transfer funds for vulnerable households.   Participants coalesced around the need for greater commitments to be made to meaningfully tackle food insecurity. Several participants called on the UN Security Council to take more concrete action on food insecurity.   The representative from Ireland stated that overall action from the Security Council was needed to meaningfully tackle the issue at its core.   “If we don’t look at what’s driving these prices in the first place, what’s driving this insecurity in the first place? Then, you know, we’re going to be chasing our tails all the time because the problems are getting worse.”   “The humanitarian part of the UN system is playing its part, but the UN Security Council needs to play its part as well. That means responding early when we see the signs of crises coming, but it also means responding, particularly to protect civilians and putting them at the center of our response.”   http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2023/3/642695974/drought-brings-life-threatening-food-shortages-refugees-ethiopia.html http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-and-unhcr-call-urgent-support-avoid-brutal-cuts-food-aid-refugees-chad http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2022/11/63763bdc4/refugees-namibia-face-double-threat-funding-cuts-climate-change.html http://news.un.org/en/story/2022/08/1124312 http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2022/10/63568d9e4/data-shows-impacts-rising-prices-shrinking-aid-forcibly-displaced-people.html http://www.wfp.org/news/escalating-needs-rising-hunger-refugees-caught-eye-perfect-storm http://www.wfp.org/global-hunger-crisis http://bit.ly/3LzCRRs http://www.unhcr.org/nutrition-and-food-security.html http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/emergencies.html http://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-unhcr-appeal-funding-over-3-million-refugees-suffering-rations-cuts-eastern-africa Visit the related web page
	Hunger season arrives in the Sahel by IFRC, MSF, NRC, Action Against Hunger, agencies   Aug. 2021   Price hikes and currency freefall push Yemen’s children further into hunger   A spike in food prices and collapse of the Yemeni Rial to historic lows in the past month are driving more children into poverty and hunger, with families unable to afford food in local markets, Save the Children warned today.   Many children are surviving on bread and water with devastating impacts on their health, worsening an ongoing hunger and malnutrition crisis and stunting their physical and mental development, with some desperate parents selling their family gold to pay for medical care.   In import-dependent Yemen, the value of the currency has plummeted against the US dollar in the past month, pushing up fuel and food prices at the most rapid rate since the country was last on the brink of famine in 2018.   Since conflict broke out in Yemen in 2015, the price for a month’s supply of wheat flour, cooking oil, beans, and sugar has skyrocketed more than 250%, to 60,000 YER in July 2021 from 17,000 YER in February 2015.   In addition, custom exchange duties have doubled and Sana’a airport has remained closed for a fifth year, blocking commercial goods and medicine from entering the country.   Save the Children said all these factors have pushed more children towards the brink of starvation in a country where already more than half of the 30 million population faces acute food shortages, and more than 400,000 children under five are one step away from famine.   Xavier Joubert, Save the Children’s Country Director in Yemen, said:   “We are seeing the Yemeni economy plummet at a fast rate, which is a death sentence for children who are already suffering from acute malnutrition. With the unprecedented increase in food prices, lack of jobs, and with the conflict showing no sign of slowing down, Yemeni parents cannot even buy the most basic food for their children.   “Parents who are bringing their children to the clinics we support for malnutrition treatment tell us that they have only some bread to eat. Others are selling their gold in order to bring their children to the hospital. Over the next few months, we will see more and more children being pushed into acute malnutrition or even death.”   The humanitarian response plan for Yemen is still only 48% funded. International donors must realise that children’s lives depend on humanitarian support and an increase in funding, which is why donors must step up their funding for life-saving programmes in particular, such as nutrition and health. http://bit.ly/3mcjpjb   http://www.wfp.org/stories/famine-conditions-yemen-force-families-eat-tree-leaves http://www.wfp.org/emergencies/yemen-emergency   Aug. 2021   Somalia: Three million face starvation and disease, warns IFRC, as it calls for swift action.   The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned that Somalia is on the cusp of a humanitarian catastrophe. One in 4 people face high levels of acute food insecurity and more than 800,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition unless they receive treatment and food assistance immediately.   In addition to food insecurity, Somalia’s humanitarian situation continues to worsen due to multiple threats, including the outbreak of diseases such as Acute Watery Diarrhoea, measles, malaria and COVID-19.   Mohammed Mukhier, IFRC’s Regional Director for Africa said:   “Somalia is one of the riskiest places on earth to live right now. The country is a catalogue of catastrophes. Climate-related disasters, conflict and COVID-19 have coalesced into a major humanitarian crisis for millions of people. We can’t keep talking about this, we must reduce suffering now.”   Somalia is vulnerable to extreme climatic conditions, including repeated cycles of drought, seasonal floods, and tropical cyclones. The country has also been grappling with the impact of desert locusts.   People regularly experience loss of livelihoods, food insecurity, malnutrition, and a scarcity of clean water. Seventy per cent of the country’s population lives in poverty, and 40 per cent is estimated to be living in extreme poverty.   The socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 are likely to lead to worsening nutrition outcomes among vulnerable groups—including poor households in urban areas and internally displaced people, many of whom live in crowded, unhygienic conditions and makeshifts shelters in the context of increasing food prices and reduced employment and income-earning opportunities.   The IFRC, Somali Red Crescent Society and other partners continue to provide support to vulnerable communities. However, the resources are unable to keep pace with needs.   Mukhier said: “We are doing our best to contribute to the reduction of hunger and disease. But, frankly speaking, available assistance remains a drop in the ocean, given the scale of suffering.”   http://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/press-release/somalia-three-million-face-starvation-and-disease-warns-ifrc-as-it-calls-for-swift-action/   July 2021   Food assistance urgently needed as nutrition crisis grips southern Madagascar. (MSF)   People in southern Madagascar are experiencing an exceptionally acute food and nutrition crisis that is leaving thousands of children severely ill and pushing entire families into extreme poverty.   Since March 2021, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency teams have been setting up more and more mobile clinics to deliver humanitarian and medical assistance in several districts across the region. They have now begun distributing food and recently opened an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in the hospital in the town of Ambovombe.   After years of back-to-back droughts, the prospects for the harvest, which in normal times would now be well underway, are extremely poor – according to FEWS NET, food production is expected to fall up to 70 per cent below the last five-year average.   Although there may be variations between districts depending on whether they are in the highlands or on the arid plains, if there is an irrigation system in place or if aid is getting through to people, the situation continues to be catastrophic in the region where our teams work.   There are also concerns for the months to come, as the crisis may deteriorate still further with the onset of the ‘lean season’ (the period between harvests) in October.   “We’re seeing malnourished children struggling to regain weight after weeks of treatment in our mobile clinics,” says Bérengère Guais, MSF’s head of emergency programmes, who has just been to Madagascar. “The medical care we provide, and the half-rations different organisations have been distributing, are not enough to reverse the trend in a setting where there is so little access to food.”   “A massive increase in emergency food assistance is an absolute priority,” says Guais.   As well as providing treatment for malnutrition and its medical complications, in June we began distributing food rations to the families of malnourished patients to help restore their access to food.   * Around 1.14 million people of the Grand South of Madagascar are estimated to be in high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) during the current period (April -September 2021), of which nearly 14,000 people are in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5).   Over 500,000 children under the age of five in the Grand South of Madagascar will likely suffer from acute malnutrition through April 2022. Of these, over 110,000 are severely malnourished and are in urgent need of action.   http://www.msf.org/drought-leaves-skyrocketing-levels-malnutrition-madagascar http://reliefweb.int/report/madagascar/madagascar-grand-south-food-security-and-nutrition-snapshot-july-2021 http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-39/en/ http://reliefweb.int/country/mdg   June 2021   More than 29 million people in this region of West Africa face hunger and are in need of urgent assistance – triple the number just two years ago.   In the Sahel – the semi-arid region of West Africa that borders the Sahara Desert in the north and tropical savannas in the south – the number of people at risk of food insecurity has tripled in just two years, bringing the figure to more than 29 million.   Families are bracing themselves as they enter what’s known as the lean season, or the period after stored food has run out and before the next harvest begins. An estimated 811,000 people face emergency levels of hunger and require urgent assistance, a nearly eightfold increase since 2019.   Action Against Hunger urges the global community to rapidly deploy the necessary resources for an urgent and effective response to save lives and protect the livelihoods of the most vulnerable people.   COVID-19 and insecurity compromise health and nutrition services   "Compared to previous food shortages, this year is different and much more serious,” warns Mamadou Diop, Action Against Hunger’s regional representative in West Africa. “Today, the people who have reached this lean season are already very weakened physically and mentally, because they did not get necessary [routine healthcare services] due to the pandemic.”   Indeed, restrictions related to the pandemic, as well as the fear and stigma around the spread of COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine, have limited people’s access to health centers. These issues have impacted nutrition programs in a variety of ways, including by interrupting supply chains for nutrition treatment and supplemental products and limiting nutrition education sessions, screenings, and support groups.   "At times, the response to COVID-19 has come at the expense of other necessary health coverage campaigns to prevent illnesses such as malaria and measles. In addition, people's fears and beliefs have impacted traditional vaccination campaigns like polio," explains Diop.   The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is compounded by increased violence and insecurity, which has brought the current number of internally displaced persons and refugees in the region to 5.3 million.   Violence is causing immense challenges of access. Communities cannot safely access basic services including healthcare, education, water, food, and sanitation infrastructure while, at the same time, humanitarian actors cannot always safely reach vulnerable communities to provide emergency assistance.   As the hunger season begins, livelihoods collapse   While health and other essential services are compromised, food insecurity continues to grow. "How can families prepare for the lean season when the prior months have been marked by constant increases in food prices?" says Paloma Martín de Miguel, Action Against Hunger’s regional director for the Sahel. Inflation in the region is now estimated at more than 10% compared to the average of the last five years.   The pandemic has led to an alarming increase in food insecurity linked to a variety of factors, including market closures, declines in agricultural production, disrupted economic activities, reduced or lost employment opportunities, and severe disruptions in supply chains.   As Martín de Miguel points out: "Analyses show that more than half of households in the Sahel have difficulty accessing or cannot access affordable nutritious food." This challenge points to the need for more sustainable and hazard-resilient food systems, in particular through locally-led environmentally sustainable agriculture practices (known as agroecology), which can help ensure availability of nutritious, diverse, healthy foods while preserving biodiversity.   More funding needed to respond to hunger crisis   With the onset of the hunger season, the Sahel faces an emergency that endangers the lives of the most vulnerable people, especially women, children under five years old, and the elderly.   Without urgent action and assistance, the more than 13 million people already suffering from severe food insecurity will be driven further into crisis. More people will go to bed hungry, and more than 1.6 million severely malnourished children will go untreated. Many of them could die or suffer irreversible, lifelong mental and physical consequences.   Year after year, Action Against Hunger warns of the dramatic consequences of the hunger season in the Sahel. Hunger in the Sahel is not inevitable, and the drivers of food insecurity in the Sahel, including longer and more severe droughts due to climate change, conflict, and COVID-19, cannot be ignored. In addition to emergency responses, greater efforts are needed to invest heavily in building resilience.   Ensuring funding for essential services and access to these services for the most vulnerable people is crucial to ensuring long-term food and nutrition security in the region.   http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/story/hunger-season-arrives-sahel   Hunger Crisis in North West and North Central Nigeria, report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)   Food security is a basic human need, and fighting hunger is one of the greatest challenges of this century not least in Nigeria. According to an analysis done in October 2020, about 9.8 million people were estimated to be in need of external food assistance from October to December 2020 in the country,. This is a significant increase from the estimated 4 million people during the same months in 2019.   This number is projected to dramatically increase further to 12.8 million during the lean season from June to August 2021. The North East of the country has a high level of food insecurity affected by long running armed conflict and violence.   Nigeria’s North West region – particularly states of Zamfara, Sokoto, and Katsina – has in recent years seen a deterioration in the security situation, marked by an increase in banditry and violence.   The crisis has accelerated during the past years because of the intensification of attacks and has resulted in widespread displacement across the region.   Reportedly, nearly 280,000 people are displaced in the three states as of January 2021. Disrupted livelihoods and reduced market access have lessened households’ capacity to meet their essential needs. It is reported that in North West Nigeria, 2.53 million people are projected to face acute food insecurity (Phase 3 and above) in June – August 2021 lean period.   An estimated five percent of the total food insecure population (138,476 individuals) are internally displaced persons (IDPs), of which 26,000 are in the emergency acute food insecurity phase (CH phase 4).   Zamfara North, Katsina Central and Katsina South are projected to be in Crisis phase between June and August 2021. The higher prevalence of acute food insecurity mainly reflects the adverse effects of measures to contain the COVID‑19 pandemic on the supply chain, the escalation of armed and community conflicts, some localized cereal production shortfalls, the unfavourable macro‑economic conditions, and high food prices.   http://www.icrcnewsroom.org/story/en/1962/nigeria-2-million-displaced-people-hit-hard-as-prices-soar   ‘Millions of children going hungry in North-East Nigeria as attacks devastate lives’ – Save the Children   Save the Children is deeply concerned to find that an estimated 2.3 million children and youth, including some 700,000 children under five, are going hungry in North-East Nigeria.   A recent UN report found that 4.4 million people in the area are facing food shortages as attacks by militants are forcing farmers from their lands. Save the Children strongly condemns the reported attacks and displacement of farmers and other civilians.   An estimated 2.2 million people have fled their homes because of the violence, leaving families and children wanting food, a safe place to live and, for many children, education.   Shannon Ward, Acting Country Director, Save the Children International Nigeria, said:   “The situation is extremely dire. Millions of children have already been through a decade of suffering, violence and humanitarian crisis. Thousands and thousands have died, and many more saw their rights impacted to survive, learn and be protected.”   “The reported loss of livelihoods, land and crop coupled with the effects of COVID-19 is beyond something the community can bear. We are extremely worried that this will lead to an even bigger food crisis in the northeast of the country.”   “We call upon the Federal and State Governments to ensure that farmers are supported and protected, so they can work their lands, and feed their families and communities. And we call for safe access for humanitarian workers, so we can reach those most in need.”   http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/millions-children-going-hungry-north-east-nigeria-attacks-devastate-lives-save http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/joint-efforts-fight-hunger-north-east-nigeria http://reliefweb.int/report/nigeria/emergency-appeal-north-west-and-north-central-nigeria-hunger-crisis-2021 http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/story/escalating-violence-nigerias-zamfara-state-fueling-humanitarian http://www.nrc.no/news/2021/april/relentless-attacks-in-northeast-nigeria-halt-aid-delivery/ http://reliefweb.int/country/nga http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/resources/alerts-archive/en/ Visit the related web page
	View more stories