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Steve Agbota
The United Nations (UN) in its latest report has ranked Nigeria among countries with worst food indices in 2018.
The Global Report on Food Crisis, indicated that no fewer than 113 million people experienced high levels of food insecurity in the world’s most severe food crisis in history.
The report, which was released in Brussels this week showed that these food crises were primarily driven by conflict and climate-related disasters.
However, one of the key findings of the report revealed that nearly two-thirds of those facing acute hunger were in just eight countries, which includes Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The report added: “The worst food crises in 2018, in order of severity, were Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, South Sudan and Northern Nigeria. These eight countries accounted for two thirds of the total number of people facing acute food insecurity – amounting to nearly 72 million people.”
The UN report said the short-term outlook of food insecurity for 2019 showed that Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Sudan, South Sudan and northern Nigeria are expected to remain among the world’s most severe food crises in 2019.
“Large segments of populations in most of these countries risk falling into Emergency (IPC/CH Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity. In the 16 states of northern Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, the number of people in crisis and emergency decreased by 40 percent between June and August 2017 and 2018 to 5.3 million.
At the peak of the lean season three million were acutely food insecure in the three North-Eastern states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency where protracted conflict and mass displacement disrupted agriculture, trade, markets and livelihoods, and pushed up food prices,” the UN report explained.
