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The lines of refugees fleeing Sudan in search of food and safety show how the war is increasing the number of severely hungry people around the world. Indeed, protracted wars and conflicts, from Yemen and Syria to Afghanistan, have already become a major factor in the global food security crisis.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 345 million people today face severe food insecurity, more than double the number in 2019. The international community is struggling to cope with new conflicts, extreme weather and signs of donor fatigue among major donors.
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Donors have responded generously to build global resilience to food shortages, but today’s numbers are frightening: more hungry in more countries. The war in Sudan is just the latest surprise.
“What we are facing is really a wildfire spreading food insecurity,” says Martin Frick, director of the WFP office in Berlin.
Catherine Maldonado, senior director of food security at Mercy Corps, says she is concerned that the world’s understandable focus on crises like Sudan’s “means we’re not talking enough about what we could do now to prevent places who are already in a difficult situation. point from reaching the tipping point.
“We cannot afford to lose sight of these efforts that are helping communities on the brink,” she says, “lest in the coming years we see such an increase in the number of people who have crossed the tipping point to acute hunger that we have seen in this year.”
In the weeks since the outbreak of hostilities in Sudan, large groups of women and children have been fleeing across the border into Chad in search of food and safety.
Chadians and international aid organizations already on the scene to address the food shortage in Chad itself are doing their best to feed and shelter the refugees, even if it means only a bowl of watery porridge and a sheet tied to the branches of a tree.
And as the war rages on, the scene in Chad is being repeated in many of Sudan’s other neighbors as refugees pour into countries in the Horn of Africa that are already facing growing famine from conflict, drought and economic turmoil.
Why did we write this
The story dedicated
Donors have responded generously to build global resilience to food shortages, but today’s numbers are frightening: more hungry in more countries. The war in Sudan is just the latest surprise.
The growing lines of refugees show how the war in Sudan – a surprise to most of the world when the armed forces and a powerful paramilitary organization began fighting in the capital Khartoum a month ago – is increasing the number of severely hungry people around the world.
“What we are facing is really a wildfire spreading food insecurity,” says Martin Frick, director of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) Berlin office.
Wars and protracted conflicts, from Yemen and Syria to Afghanistan, have already contributed significantly to the global food security crisis. Now this war in a global hunger hotspot is exacerbating the crisis that, before this year, has reversed previous steady progress in reducing acute hunger.
First, the war in Sudan has erupted at a time when global food prices are particularly high, fueled by the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s most important breadbaskets, and the prolonged supply chain disruption due to the pandemic.
Four C hunger
It added a new C—cost—to what food experts previously called the “3 Cs” of the food insecurity crisis: conflict, COVID-19, and climate change.
According to WFP, 345 million people face severe food insecurity, more than double the 135 million people living in the same straits in 2019. contributions as usual.
The UN says 345 million are now in 79 countries – “many, many more.” [countries] than in 2019,” adds Mr. Frick.
One factor, he says, is increasingly intense and destructive weather: last year’s landmark flooding in Pakistan and the prolonged drought in Africa are just two examples.
But since armed conflict is considered the biggest cause of food insecurity, Mr. Frick notes that the number of “live wars” has doubled from what it was ten years ago.
“The number of protracted wars… is not decreasing, and then we have new wars in Ukraine and now in Sudan, which add to the already large number” of people facing food insecurity, he says.
Deal with wobbly grain
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been particularly damaging, Mr. Frick adds, because prior to the invasion, more than 400 million people, many in vulnerable countries, depended on Ukrainian grain.
Last year, the UN and Turkey struck a deal with Ukraine and Russia to ensure the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments from Black Sea ports. The deal was a success, according to the UN and other experts, allowing Ukraine to safely export about 30 million metric tons of grain and other food products.
Indeed, WFP was one of the main beneficiaries of the deal, with the organization purchasing some 600,000 metric tons of grain for its operations in a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Somalia.
But now the agreement appears to be on shaky ground; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that the agreement has been extended by two months, but its future remains uncertain: Russia is threatening to pull out of the agreement unless it receives additional benefits for its food and fertilizer producers.
“Russia must stop holding global food security hostage to its cynical game for power and profit,” said Robert Wood, US deputy ambassador to the UN, ahead of a Security Council meeting on Monday to discuss the grain deal.
Russia counters that the grain deal is helping rich Western countries lower food prices more than it benefits the world’s hungry.
home pressure
Signs that “donor fatigue” may be emerging among some traditional food aid providers are also worrisome. Cuts or domestic redirections of humanitarian budgets in some countries suggest that domestic pressure to focus on post-pandemic recovery at home may be undermining enthusiasm for overcoming the global crisis.
When developing countries hit a series of food price shocks in 2007-2008, “we saw an impressive number of countries in the international community come together to address this problem,” says Catherine Maldonado, senior director of food security at Mercy Corps.
“But right now, food prices are rising around the world,” she adds, “and that makes it hard for some to join the global response when some of the same issues they should have addressed with humanitarian funding are being felt at home.”
Against this background, a group of developed countries of the G7 intends to discuss the issue of food security at a meeting of leaders in Hiroshima, Japan, this weekend.
WFP’s Mr. Frick says Western countries have responded most generously to growing needs for food aid, with the United States, Germany and the European Union leading the way. Result? A record $14 billion in food aid agency suitcases.
However, he echoes Ms. Maldonado, noting that “internal problems” in a number of hitherto reliable donor countries raise concerns that the world simply cannot continue to increase humanitarian donations as needs rise.
“Countries have been generous, but we also acknowledge these challenges, which raise concerns that we may not be able to maintain the same level of funding this year,” he says.
Reaction vs Prevention
However, what worries some experts as much as humanitarian funding is that the world’s attention tends to focus on a current crisis such as Sudan. This can divert attention from areas that are already in trouble and need more help to prevent widespread famine or even starvation.
“Our focus on these major crises means we are not talking enough about what we could do now to prevent places that are already in trouble from reaching a breaking point,” worries Ms Maldonado, who lives in in Guatemala.
Indeed, the UN and others estimate that the number of people facing hunger or food insecurity, though not yet severely food insecure, is approaching 830 million, up from about 660 million in 2019.
Farid Khan/AP
The “big crises” have not prevented WFP from fulfilling its development mandate, which includes projects to increase sustainable small-scale food production in some of the world’s food insecure hotspots.
Mr. Frick points to a project to develop “sustainable villages” in parts of Niger where food production has all but stopped. But with the introduction of water-reclamation measures, the lands could once again support crops and livestock.
Then, when the worst food security crisis in decades hit Niger in 2022, 80% of “resilient villages” were able to survive the crisis without humanitarian assistance.
“These projects give people hope for a future where it previously seemed like there might not be,” says Mr. Frick, “but they also demonstrate that there are solutions to the global food security crisis.”
Ms. Maldonado of Mercy Corps cites solar-powered irrigation projects she visited in drought-stricken Ethiopia and Somalia in February as initiatives that will pay long-term dividends in the fight against food insecurity.
“These projects help people stay put, preserve assets like livestock they still have, and give women farmers the stability they need,” she says.
“We cannot afford to lose sight of these efforts that are helping communities on the brink,” says Ms Maldonado. “More is needed now,” she adds, “so that in the coming years we don’t see the same increase in the number of people passing the tipping point to acute hunger that we have seen this year.”
Two court vans, each carrying defendants, drive into a courtyard before the start of the trial of members of the United Patriots at the Oberlandesgericht Koblenz, Germany, Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
Sebastian Gallnow/AP
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Sebastian Gallnow/AP
Two court vans, each carrying defendants, drive into a courtyard before the start of the trial of members of the United Patriots at the Oberlandesgericht Koblenz, Germany, Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
Sebastian Gallnow/AP
BERLIN. On Wednesday, five people will stand trial in Germany accused of planning a far-right coup and plotting to kidnap the country’s health minister.
Four men aged 44 to 56 and a 75-year-old woman are charged with creating or membership in a terrorist organization and treason.
Federal prosecutors say the group is linked to the Citizens of the Reich scene, which rejects the legitimacy of Germany’s post-war constitution and bears similarities to the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon movements in the United States.
Prosecutors say they intended to create “civil war-like conditions” by using explosives to cause power outages across the country and then kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, a known proponent of strict coronavirus measures.
There was no indication that the group, which called itself the United Patriots, was close to organizing a coup. But prosecutors said the group’s acquisition of weapons and money showed they were “dangerous criminals who wanted to realize their plans.”
The men, whose names have not been released for privacy reasons, were arrested in April last year. At the time, police seized 22 firearms, including a Kalashnikov assault rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as large amounts of cash, gold and silver.
The woman, who was arrested six months later, is said to have drawn up numerous documents for the group, including Lauterbach’s “arrest warrant”. The retired teacher also wrote letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Lauterbach told the German weekly Der Spiegel that he hoped for a “tough and fair verdict” that would deter others from planning similar plots.
This case is not related to the case of more than two dozen people who were also arrested in December for planning to overthrow the government. Among the conspirators was a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
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