Geneva | Some 260 NGOs have called on donor countries to pay the $ 5.5 billion demanded by UN agencies to save 34 million people from famine, in an open letter published on Tuesday.
“We call on you to give the 5.5 billion dollars in additional funds requested to provide emergency food assistance”, to tens of millions of people, who “are not starving, but starving” , implores the letter whose signatories are national and international NGOs from around the world.
This mobilization supports the appeal launched by the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) which have requested these additional funds for the year 2021.
According to the NGOs, it would be enough to devote the equivalent of 26 hours of world military expenditure to be able to raise this sum.
They point out that for the time being only 5% of the 7.8 billion dollars requested in total for the year 2021 by the UN to ensure food safety have been promised.
At the end of 2020, the UN estimated that 270 million people worldwide were either hungry or on the brink of not having enough to eat.
A total of 174 million people in 58 countries are at risk of dying from malnutrition or lack of food “and this number will only increase in the months to come if nothing is done”, denounce these NGOs.