Trending

Over 280 million Africans are under nourished-Oxfam

Dylan Murambgi

AT least 282 million people in Africa are under nourished with 93 million on the continent suffering extreme levels of hunger amid calls for leaders to devise strategies to urgently address the crisis.

 Data gathered by Oxfam says one in five people 282 million people is now under-nourished and 93 million in 36 African countries are suffering extreme levels of hunger. 

“Women and children are hit hardest. In Sub-Saharan Africa, one in three children under five is stunted by chronic undernutrition while two out of five women of childbearing age are anaemic because of poor diets,” the humanitarian organisation said.

The data coincides with the African Union summit slated for the 5th and 6th of February where leaders will launch a “year of nutrition” amid worsening levels of hunger and malnutrition that are now threatening sustainable development across the entire continent.

The UN also estimates that food prices in Sub-Saharan Africa are now 30-40% higher than the rest of the world, taking into account comparative levels of GDP per capita.

“The triple threat of the climate crisis, COVID-19, and conflict will require an extraordinary response from African leaders.

“Many countries have already taken important steps, increasing investment in healthcare, providing shock responsive social protection systems, and empowering local, women-led, peacebuilding initiatives. However, such actions are still too few and far between,” said Oxfam’s Pan-African Program Director Peter Kamalingin.

He said while the deck seems stacked against Africa, there is a lot more that African leaders can do to improve food security.

The data also shows that instead of allocating 15% of national budgets to the health sector and 10% to agriculture, military spending across Africa rose by over 5% in 2020. African’s leaders must prioritize food, trade and medicines over bullets, guns, and bombs.

 “People are having to skip meals to feed their children, selling livestock and other assets, begging, pulling children out of school, or harvesting immature crops.

“Over three million people in Somalia have recently migrated, in large part because of hunger, while millions of households in pastoralist communities in Chad, Benin, Niger, Mali and Mauritania say they are having to sell more animals than they otherwise would to pay for more food”, said Kamalingin.

Historical injustices, inequality and wealth extraction have left generations of Africans poor and national economies indebted. Africa has stood last in line for Covid vaccines as the rich world-hogged supplies. The continent has also been hit hardest by climate change and is already heating at a faster rate than the global average of 1.2 degrees.

“While the deck seems stacked against Africa, there is a lot more that African leaders can do to improve food security. Instead of allocating 15% of national budgets to the health sector and 10% to agriculture, military spending across Africa rose by over 5% in 2020. African leaders must prioritize food, trade and medicines over bullets, guns and bombs” said Kamalingin.

Twenty African countries are today facing insecurity and conflict including seven coups in the last year alone. In Ethiopia—the home of the AU—conflict has contributed to catastrophic levels of food insecurity in the Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions.

“Today, the crisis has completely changed our lives. We had to move from Boma to the Amma site where we live in a makeshift shelter that barely hides the sun. Our water is not drinkable and we cannot get enough to eat. Imagine your diet dropping from three meals a day to one.”

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button