REUTERS, London

World hunger levels rose again last year after soaring in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the Ukraine war and climate change threatening starvation and mass migration on an “unprecedented scale” this year, according to UN agencies.

Up to 828 million people, or nearly 10 percent of the world’s population, were affected by hunger last year, 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than in 2019, agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme and World Health Organisation said in the 2022 edition of the UN food security and nutrition report.

World hunger levels remained relatively unchanged between 2015 and 2019.

“There is a real danger these numbers will climb even higher in the months ahead,” said WFP executive director David Beasley, adding price spikes in food, fuel and fertilisers stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war threaten to push countries into famine.

“The result will be global destabilisation, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe,” he added.

Russia and Ukraine are the world’s third and fourth largest grains exporters, respectively, while Russia is also a key fuel and fertiliser exporter.

The war has disrupted their exports, pushed world food prices to record levels and triggered protests in developing countries already contending with elevated food prices due to Covid-19 related supply chain disruptions.

The UN report released yesterday warned of “potentially sobering” implications for food security and nutrition as conflict, climate extremes, economic shocks and inequalities keep intensifying.

It estimated that globally in 2020, 22 percent of children under 5 were stunted while 6.7 percent or 45 million suffered from wasting, a deadly form of malnutrition that increases the risk of death by up to 12 times.