hunger - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

How to end hunger in sub-Saharan Africa: fight inequality, gender imbalances and climate change

A greater part of Africa’s population can’t afford a healthy diet than any other regional population. Food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa is caused by climate change, high levels of poverty, rapid population growth, low economic growth, inadequate infrastructure and conflicts. Women are the backbone of agricultural labour in the region. The problems of limited access to land, water and technology faced by these women also worsen food insecurity. People have a right to food – to produce food, to be free from hunger, and to participate in policy decisions that affect food systems. The right to food is also recognised…

Apr

2024

By NYASHA CHINGONO

Hunger grips southern Africa as Zimbabwe declares drought a disaster

NEWS

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa declared Zimbabwe's drought a national disaster and said the country needed more than $2 billion in aid to feed millions facing hunger. Mnangagwa's statement follows similar announcements by Zambia in late February and Malawi in March, as drought induced by the El Nino global weather pattern triggers a humanitarian crisis in southern Africa.d More than 2.7 million people in Zimbabwe will go hungry this year, Mnangagwa told journalists at the state house in Harare, adding that 80% of the country had received poor rains. "Preliminary assessments show that Zimbabwe requires in excess of $2 billion towards various…

Mar

2024

By MICHELLE NICHOLS

Sudan needs ‘immediate action’ on hunger to avert widespread death

NEWS

IMMEDIATE action is needed to "prevent widespread death and total collapse of livelihoods and avert a catastrophic hunger crisis in Sudan," a United Nations-backed global authority on food security warned. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) had been due to issue an update to its December analysis that found nearly 5 million were on the verge of catastrophic hunger. However, it was unable to do so due to the war. Instead, the IPC said it reviewed the latest evidence available and published the alert on Friday "to express major concern" about the deteriorating situation and to push for immediate…

Dec

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Gaza families beg for bread, eat donkey meat as aid deliveries falter

WORLD

PEOPLE in Gaza described begging for bread, paying 50 times more than usual for a single can of beans and slaughtering a donkey to feed a family as food aid trucks were unable to reach most parts of the bombarded Palestinian territory. Israel was pounding the length of the Gaza Strip in pursuit of its goal of destroying Hamas, the conflict making it almost impossible for aid convoys to move around and reach people going hungry. The U.N. humanitarian office OCHA said on Thursday that limited aid distributions were taking place in the Rafah area, close to the border with Egypt, where…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Africa needs to learn to feed itself, says Senegal president

NEWS

BATE FELIX AFRICA must produce more food instead of relying on imports and aid, Senegalese President Macky Sall told leaders gathered in the West African nation's capital for a summit. The continent is facing its worst food crisis ever, with more than one in five Africans – a record 278 million people – facing hunger, according to United Nations estimates. Heavy debt burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine which raised prices of fuel, grain and edible oils and diverted aid have added to long-term causes of food insecurity such as climate change and conflict, experts say. "Africa…

Apr

2022

By The African Mirror

Hunger in Africa surges due to conflict, climate and food prices

NEWS

AYENAT MERSIE CONFLICT, climate change and rising food and fuel prices are pushing about a quarter of Africans towards hunger, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. About 346 million people in Africa are facing severe food insecurity, meaning they have likely experienced hunger, in the worst crisis since 2017. Last year, the figure was about 286 million. "The acute food insecurity situation in many of the countries where we are working - and people are already affected by armed conflict - is tipping into famine-like conditions," said Dominik Stillhart, ICRC's global operations director. Two years of conflict…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Hunger increases in South Africa despite COVID-19 welfare payments

NEWS

EIGHTEEN percent of South African households reported someone going hungry at the end of last year, a survey published on yesterday found, with the situation worsening despite welfare payments to fight the impact of COVID-19. The hunger rate compares to 14% recorded in an official survey in 2018, showing the impact of the pandemic, researchers wrote in findings of the National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM), which followed 10,000 adults. "The reduction of social protection while rates of adult and child hunger are still at the highest they have been for a decade will have severe consequences," they…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Hungry for change: Faulty for systems laid bare by COVID-19 and climate crises

WORLD

THIN LEI WIN and CORMAC O’BRIEN FROM wildfires in California and locust attacks in Ethiopia to job losses caused by pandemic lockdowns in Italy and Myanmar, climate change and COVID-19 disrupted food production and tipped millions more people into hunger in 2020. Now there are fears the situation could worsen next year as both the coronavirus crisis and wild weather exacerbate fragile conditions linked to conflicts and poverty in many parts of the globe, aid officials told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Even before COVID-19 hit, 135 million people were marching towards the brink of starvation. This could double to 270…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Storm Eta damage pushes small, indigenous farmers in Central America into hunger

WORLD

ANASTASIA MOLONEY RUBEN Garcia not long ago had small herds of cattle and fields bursting with crops, and now the indigenous farmer in northern Nicaragua lies awake worrying how long it will be before he and his neighbours run out of food. The wooden homes and tiny farms of the indigenous Miskito community stood little chance against the sustained winds of 150 mph as Hurricane Eta barreled along the Caribbean coast earlier this month. The subsistence farmers in one of Nicaragua's poorest areas will have little to eat in the wake of one of the most powerful storms to hit…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Virus fears as Mozambique conflict fuels overcrowding, hunger

HUMAN RIGHTS

TAVARES CEBOLA THREE months ago, Sofia Bombina and her family of 11 had to flee their home on the Mozambique coast after their town was attacked by a militant group. The 39-year-old farmer, her nine children and her sister travelled nearly 400km (250 miles) by bus from Mocimboa da Praia to Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado province, where they now live with a host family. Bombina is among the hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced since an insurgency erupted in the northern province three years ago. Most of those escaping the ongoing conflict are finding shelter…