Up to 83 million people in East and Southern Africa experience acute food insecurity, including famine, the World Bank said in its latest Food Security Update.
Development Diaries reports that the number is predicted to increase in the coming months as many African countries grapple with domestic food price inflation.
The report, which covered the period of December 2022 and March 2023, revealed that the countries affected most are in Africa.
Findings show that South Sudan and Somalia are at risk of famine, with 22.6 million people in Ethiopia, ten million in Sudan, ten million in South Sudan, 7.5 million in Somalia, and 7.5 million in Kenya facing emergency conditions.
It also noted that ten million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2.5 million in Uganda, 2.5 million in Mozambique, and 2.5 million in Madagascar face crisis conditions.
The drought in the Horn of Africa, according to the findings, has affected more than 24 million people in Ethiopia, with at least 11.8 million needing emergency food assistance.
The report also gave insight into the situation of food prices in West and Central African countries.
‘The most recent FAO Food Price Monitoring and Analysis reports higher year-on-year prices of coarse grains in most West African countries’, it read.
Burkina Faso experienced increased grain prices, Senegal and Chad recorded higher year-on-year prices, while markets in Mali reported low price levels due to conflict-induced market disruptions.
In Niger, coarse grain prices in February 2023 were considerably lower than in February 2022 because of a marked increase in output in 2022.
In Ghana, coarse grain prices approached record to near-record levels, with increases reaching up to 140 percent year-on-year for maize and millet; and in Nigeria, annual food inflation stood at a record level of 24.3 percent as of January 14.
Aminu Garba is a farmer in Adamawa State, northeast Nigeria. The protracted insecurity in the state has displaced him and his family, leaving him with no access to land to continue agricultural production.
In other states such as Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Benue and Niger, banditry and kidnapping have affected farmers who cannot go to their farms anymore.
The African Development Bank (AfDB), in January 2023, promised to commit ten billion dollars over the next five years to boost Africa’s efforts to end hunger and become a primary food provider for itself and the rest of the world.
The AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, also called on more than 34 heads of state, 70 government ministers, the private sector, farmers, development partners, and corporate executives to work out compacts that would deliver food and agriculture transformation at scale across Africa.
Development Diaries calls on African leaders to turn political will into decisive actions to deliver food security for the continent.
Photo source: AfDB
