WFP chief urges the rich to help hungry people

United Nations | XINHUA | United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley on Thursday urged the rich to help the hungry.

“We cannot and we must not surrender, or tell ourselves there is nothing we can do, because millions of people around the world desperately need our help,” Beasley said at the Security Council’s virtual session on protecting civilians in armed conflicts.

The WFP chief noted that there are now 17.1 million people suffering severe food insecurity amid armed conflicts and COVID-19, compared with 4.5 million six or seven months ago, while there are over 2,000 billionaires worldwide with a net worth of 8 trillion U.S. dollars.

“We need 4.9 billion U.S. dollars to feed, for one year, all 30 million people who will die without WFP’s assistance,” Beasley said.

“It’s time for those who have the most to step up, to help those who have the least in this extraordinary time in world history,” he said.

“Famine was real. It’s a terrifying possibility in up to three dozen countries if we don’t continue to act like we’ve been acting,” he added.

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