1 person dying of hunger every four seconds

One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, over 200 NGOs warned yesterday, urging decisive international action to "end the spiralling global hunger crisis".

In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, 238 organisations from 75 countries, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Plan International expressed outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels.

"A staggering 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019," they said in a statement.

"Despite promises from world leaders to never allow famine again in the 21st century, famine is once more imminent in Somalia. Around the world, 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries," they said.

Pointing out that as many as 19,700 people are estimated to be dying of hunger every day, the NGOs said that this translates to one person dying of hunger every four seconds, reports AFP.

"It is abysmal that with all the technology in agriculture and harvesting techniques today we are still talking about famine in the 21st century," Mohanna Ahmed Ali Eljabaly from the Yemen Family Care Association, one of the letter's signatories, said in the statement.

"This is not about one country or one continent and hunger never only has one cause. This is about the injustice of the whole of humanity," he said.

"We must not wait a moment longer to focus both on providing immediate lifesaving food and longer-term support so people can take charge of their futures and provide for themselves and their families."

UN children's agency said more than 500,000 Somali children under five are expected to suffer severe acute malnutrition and risk death from famine this year, a number unseen in any country this century, reports Reuters.

The UN has warned that parts of Somalia will be hit by famine in coming months as the Horn of Africa region faces a fifth consecutive failed rainy season.