A study by the Earth Institute at Columbia University laments that for years it seemed the world was making progress eliminating hunger. Then, starting in 2014, the trend slid back slowly and reversed in many nations; now, according to the UN, some 700 million people—nearly 9% of the world’s population—go to bed hungry.
One of the hardest-hit regions is Sub-Saharan Africa. Many people reflexively blame droughts stoked by climate change, but the new study contradicts this: long-running wars, not the weather, are to blame. The study, just published in Nature Food, finds that while droughts routinely cause food insecurity in Africa, their contribution to hunger has remained steady or even shrunk in recent years. Instead, rising widespread, long-term violence has displaced people, raised food prices and blocked outside food aid, resulting in the reversal.
• The number of people requiring emergency food aid in monitored countries surged from 48 million in 2015 to 113 million in 2020.
