Credit: Wikipedia Commons /  Engraving from personal copy of The Graphic, 6 October 1877, entitled “The last of the herd,” about the plight of animals as well as humans in the Bellary district of the Madras Presidency, British India during the Great Famine of 1876–78.

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC TIMES

UNITED NATIONS –  NEW YORK –  Famines  of biblical proportions could  sweep across the globe fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic,  the UN food relief agency chief warned this week.  Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley gave the dire warning in a briefing to the UN Security Council Tuesday via video link.  Noting that the global spread of COVID-19 this year has sparked “the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two”, Beasley pointed to deepening crises, more frequent natural disasters and changing weather patterns, saying “we’re already facing a perfect storm”.  He said the world is not only facing “a global health pandemic but also a global humanitarian catastrophe” and urged the international community to act fast. The UN official said as millions of civilians in conflict-scarred nations teeter on the brink of starvation, he said, “famine is a very real and dangerous possibility”.  Beasley said some 135 million people are facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus, noting that WFP currently offers a lifeline to nearly 100 million people – up from about 80 million just a few years ago.

“If we can’t reach these people with the life-saving assistance they need, our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period”, he upheld. “This does not include the increase of starvation due to COVID-19”.

-Executive Director UN World Food Programme  David Beasley

Credit: FAO/IFAD/WFP/Michael Tewelde /  In 2019, Ethiopia experienced the fifth-worst food crisis of all the countries on earth

Beasley also raised the need for early warning systems:

“If we don’t prepare and act now – to secure access, avoid funding shortfalls and disruptions to trade – we could be facing multiple famines of biblical proportions within a short few months.”

  Keep critical food supply chains operating to save lives during COVID-19, urges new UN-backed report.

A new study on food insecurity by an alliance of UN, governmental, and non-governmental agencies analyzes what is fueling global food crises and examines how, among other emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic is perpetuating downward cycle for millions.  In 2019, around 135 million people across 55 countries experienced acute food insecurity, which required urgent food, nutrition, and livelihoods assistance for survival, according to the joint news release issued on Tuesday in Rome by the Global Network Against Food Crises.

“But these numbers are just the tip of a larger iceberg”, according to the Global Network.

“We cannot allow anything – not COVID-19, not anything, to prevent us” from delivering assistance, the Global Network stated.