The Food Shortage is already here! Globally, 108

The Food Shortage is already here!
Globally, 108 million people in
2016 were reported to be facing
Crisis level food insecurity or
worse.
This represents a 35 percent
increase compared to 2015 when
the figure was almost 80 million.
The acute and wide-reaching
effects of conflicts left significant
numbers of food insecure people in
need of urgent assistance in
Yemen (17 million); Syria (7.0
million); South Sudan (4.9
million); Somalia (2.9 million);
northeast Nigeria (4.7 million),
Burundi (2.3 million) and Central
African Republic (2 million). The
immediate outlook points to
worsening conditions in some
locations, with risk of famine in
isolated areas of northeast Nigeria,
South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
Conflict causes widespread
displacement (internal and
external), protracting food
insecurity and placing a burden on
host communities. The populations
worst affected are those of Syria
(6.3 million Internally Displaced
People) and Syrian refugees in
neighbouring countries (4.8
million); Iraq (3.1 million); Yemen
(3.2 million), South Sudan (3
million), Somalia (2.1 million) and
northeast Nigeria (2.1 million).
In some countries, food security
has been undermined by El Niño,
which largely manifested in
drought conditions that damaged
agricultural livelihoods. The
countries most affected are in
eastern and southern Africa and
include Somalia, Ethiopia (9.7
million), Madagascar (0.8 million in
the Grand Sud), Malawi (6.7
million), Mozambique (1.9 million)
and Zimbabwe (4.1 million).
Projections for early 2017 indicate
an increase in the severity of food
insecurity in these regions. This is
particularly the case in southern
and south-eastern Ethiopia, Kenya
and Somalia.
Record staple food prices, notably
in some southern African
countries, Nigeria and South
Sudan, also severely constrained
food access for vulnerable
populations, acutely aggravating
food insecurity and the risk of
malnutrition.
El Niño-induced weather patterns
and conflicts were the main drivers
of intensified food insecurity in
2016. The persistent nature of
these drivers, and their associated
impacts, has weakened
households’ capacity to cope,
undermining their resilience and
ability to recover from future
shocks. The food crises in 2016
were both widespread and severe,
affecting entire nations.