The British aid agency Oxfam published a new report July 9, entitled “The Hunger Virus Multiplies: Deadly Recipe of Conflict, Covid-19 and Climate Accelerate World Hunger,” warning that the the number of people living in famine-like conditions in the world has risen sixfold over the past year. [emphasis in original] (https://oi-files-d8-prod.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2021-07/The%20Hunger%20Virus%202.0_media%20brief_EN.pdf)
It asserts in its Executive Summary that this year, 20 million more people have been pushed into extreme levels of food insecurity, reaching 155 million people in 55 countries. Since the pandemic began, it continues, “the number of people living in famine-like conditions has increased sixfold,” to a total of 520,000. “What we saw as a global health crisis has quickly spiraled into an inflamed hunger crisis that has laid bare the stark inequality in our world. The worst is still yet to come unless governments urgently tackle food insecurity and its root causes head on,” the report urges.
