UNICEF: Climate change, Corona and the Ukraine crisis are three threats global food security
Translated by - Noor Suleiman.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday, that
the world is rapidly becoming a "virtual bomb" in terms of
preventable child deaths and wasted children.
"Despite increasing levels of severe wasting in children, and
rising costs of life-saving treatment, global funding to save the lives of
children suffering from wasting is also at risk," she noted, according to
the organization's website.
"Even before the Ukrainian war
put pressure on food security, around the world, conflict, climate shocks and
COVID-19 were having a catastrophic impact on families’ ability to feed their
children,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
"Currently, about 10 million children (2 out of every 3) who is suffering
from severe wasting do not have access to ready-to-use therapeutic food, which
is a more effective treatment for wasting," she noted.
The organization warned that a set of global shocks facing food security
around the world, led by the Ukrainian war, the suffering of economies in order
to recover from Corona, and the ongoing drought conditions in some countries
due to climate change, create the conditions for a significant increase in
global levels of severe wasting. .
Worldwide, at least 13.6 million children under the age of five suffer
from severe wasting, causing 1 in 5 deaths in this age group.