The world may face its worst humanitarian crisis in 75 years in 2021. Director of the UN World Food Program (WFP) David Beazley said this at a special meeting of the UN General Assembly dedicated to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, based on what can be seen at this stage, next year “will be literally disastrous.” Over the past four years, armed conflicts have increased the number of people on the brink of starvation from 80 million to 135 million, and this number has risen to 270 million due to the pandemic.
According to RIA Novosti, Beazley noted that the organization spent $ 19 trillion, but in 2021, most likely, this money will not be due to the economic downturn, while the needs doubled, it will not be possible to finance everything.
The world community will be able to overcome the humanitarian crisis if it collects the necessary funds. The head of WFP stressed that countries should prioritize the problems of destabilization, migration and hunger. Only in this way, in his opinion, humanity will be able to “survive 2021”.
In early December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) counted the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance around the world. According to preliminary calculations, in 2021 the world will need 235 million people.
On December 4, it was reported that the mass hunger of residents of the eastern territories of the Indonesian island of Bali intensified due to the coronavirus pandemic. The problem of food shortages already existed in the region. Thousands of people are now starving. The unemployment rate rose by 5.6% in August, while 105 thousand people lost their jobs.