At least three-fourths of Africans can't afford a healthy diet, and a fifth are undernourished due to an "unprecedented food crisis," United Nations agencies said in a report released Thursday with the African Union Commission. The continent's 1.4 billion people are confronting high levels of hunger and malnutrition as the hit on world grain supplies from Russia's war in Ukraine compounds the ills of African conflicts, climate change, and the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. It warned that "millions are expected to be at risk of worsening hunger in the near future," the AP reports.
With a young population on track to double by 2050, Africa is the only rapidly growing region where people are getting poorer, and some are beginning to celebrate coups by soldiers who promise a better life. Despite its wealth of natural resources, Africa is far from meeting its commitment to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2025. Armed violence in West and Central Africa has uprooted millions from their communities, while in East Africa, climate change and extreme weather pose severe threats to farmers. Many families increasingly find it difficult to eat as incomes fail to keep pace with skyrocketing prices for food.
"The majority of Africa's population—about 78%, or more than 1 billion people—remain unable to afford a healthy diet, compared with 42% at the global level, and the number is rising," said the report from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Economic Commission for Africa, the World Food Program, and the African Union Commission. In 2022, as many as 342 million Africans were "severely food-insecure," the report said. That represented 38% of the 735 million hungry people around the world, it said. Among those affected the most by the food crisis in Africa are children under age 5, 30% of whom are stunted because of malnutrition, the report said. The agencies said they hope the report spurs global systems to improve food production and nutrition.
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