One person dies of hunger every four seconds, more than 200 non-governmental organizations denounced on Tuesday and asked world leaders gathered at the 76th UN General Assembly to “take actions that stop the crisis”.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 75 countries signed an open letter to state leaders in New York expressing outrage at the “explosion in the number of hungry people” and making recommendations to stop the global hunger crisis.
“Currently, 345 million people around the world suffer from acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019,” the 238 organizations underlined in a press release.
The open letter was published on the occasion of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, where a large number of political leaders, as well as representatives of civil society, gather for a week for what is considered the most important diplomatic meeting in the world.
“It is unacceptable that, with all the agricultural technology … that exists today, we are still talking about hunger in the 21st century,” said Mohanna Ahmed Ali Eljabaly of the Yemen Family Care Association, one of the signatories to the letter.
“It is not just one country or one continent, and hunger never has a single cause. It is about the injustice of all humanity,” he added.
The food crisis, along with the security crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the energy and climate crises, are the main topics to be discussed at the UN General Assembly, which begins this Tuesday.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that more than 12% of Africans face food insecurity and called on sub-Saharan African governments to exercise discretion in policy and government spending.
Source: DN
