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Berlin, Germany | Xinhua | Rising food prices have further exacerbated global hunger, the German non-governmental aid agency Welthungerhilfe said on Tuesday.
“Millions of people are on the brink of famine, because families no longer have any resources,” said Welthungerhilfe secretary general Mathias Mogge. “The increased prices hit those hardest who are already among the poorest.”
After food prices in 2021 already increased by 28 percent worldwide, the situation worsened further this year due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to the Welthungerhilfe annual report 2021 which was released on Tuesday. Around 811 million people around the world were currently facing hunger, said the report.
The situation was particularly dramatic in Yemen, Afghanistan and South Sudan. Additionally, Madagascar and East African countries were severely affected. In these countries, massive droughts showed the “devastating effects of the climate crisis,” the report states.
Hunger in the world had been “triggered primarily by the climate crisis,” said Germany’s Minister for Agriculture Cem Oezdemir, stressing that “measures that exacerbate this climate crisis cannot be smart.”
In addition to climate change, Welthungerhilfe cited the increasing number of armed conflicts in recent years as a cause of hunger. “Wars have a massive impact on the food system because, for example, fields are burned down, stocks are looted or the sale of crops is restricted, ” it said.
