17 September 2020, New York/ Rome – FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, today warned the United Nations Security Council that Burkina Faso, South Sudan & Yemen were at risk of a looming famine & appealed for an urgent & united humanitarian response to save lives & livelihoods.

“Tragically, there are many more situations where conflict & instability, now also exacerbated by COVID 19, are drivers for more serious hunger & acute food insecurity. This is particularly visible in areas where conflict & other factors such as economic turbulence, & extreme weather, are already driving people into poverty & hunger,” he said.

In a virtual briefing to the Security Council on conflict & hunger, Qu also underscored the dire situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Nigeria, Somalia & Sudan.

The Security Council invited FAO’s Director-General, the United Nations’ Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs & Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock, & David Beasley, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, to provide an update on the food security situation in a number of countries around the world experiencing food insecurity.

“Worldwide, those hardest hit include the urban poor, informal workers & pastoral communities as well as people who are already particularly vulnerable – children, women, the elderly, the sick & people with disabilities,” the FAO Director-General said.

“We need first & fast aid to stop hunger, we need prevention & production locally, we need political willingness & we need collective actions, as the forecasts for food security in 2020 continue to worsen,” he added. 

This is the second time this year that Qu has been asked to brief the Security Council on situations of conflict induced food insecurity. Together with Lowcock & Beasley he last addressed the UN body in April.

COVID-19, Desert Locust are factors exacerbating acute food insecurity

Qu expressed deep concern about the latest data on the Democratic Republic of the Congo,  which shows that some 21.8 million people are unable to get enough food on a daily basis. Qu said this was “the highest number of people experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity ever recorded in a single country”.

In Yemen, Qu pointed out that Desert Locusts have further threatened food availability. “FAO urges all those concerned to work towards granting access for control operations to prevent the pest from further worsening the deteriorating situation in Yemen & beyond,” he said.

He also expressed “great alarm” about the worsening situation in Burkina Faso, where the number of people experiencing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity has almost tripled.

In northern Nigeria, between June & August 2020, the number of people in crisis or facing emergency levels of acute food insecurity increased by 73 percent compared to the 2019 peak figure & reached almost 8.7 million, Qu said.

He noted that in Somalia, 3.5 million people face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between July & September 2020. This increase of 67 percent compared to the 2019 peak is due to the triple shocks experienced this year – COVID-19, floods & the desert locust upsurge. “While much progress has been made in controlling the locusts, FAO is making every effort to sustain control operations,” the Director-General said.

In Sudan, the number of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance has risen by 64 percent, between June & September 2020, reaching around 9.6 million people, the highest level ever recorded in the country, with serious floods further exacerbating the situation.

Combating acute food insecurity, harnessing the power of investments & innovation

In his address to the Security Council, the FAO Director-General called for a “package of solutions” to be put in place in order to combat acute food insecurity effectively. He said humanitarian-development-peace actions must be well coordinated & complementary & that they need to be mutually reinforcing across global, regional, national & local levels.

“Humanitarian actors can provide first aid. Agri-food systems can play a more sustainable function for better production, better nutrition, better environment & a better life,” Qu said.

He noted that there was “good news” with FAO forecasting in 2020 a bumper harvest globally in major crops – an all-time high year, with 58 million tonnes above the 2019 outturn.

Qu stressed that such an achievement was being reached thanks to enabling policies, investment & “the hard work by millions of famers”.

“Lasting peace & harmony can be achieved, through good policies & investment in agriculture infrastructure & capacity building in the rural development, especially in conflict areas,” he said.

Qu said the Security Council can play a pivotal role in addressing the threat of conflict induced acute food insecurity by promoting dialogue & seeking solutions to conflict & violence. This would allow for urgent life-saving & livelihood-saving operations to be scaled up & better integrated humanitarian & development responses to be delivered that address the multiple drivers of food insecurity.

“Once again let me assure the Council of FAO’s continued support through policy advice, technical assistance, our Big Data platform & concrete services on the ground,” the Director-General concluded.