Colombia included among countries with severe food crisis

Colombia could face a serious food security crisis in the coming months, warned the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Both UN agencies published a global report on food insecurity, called Hunger Hotspots, which aims to analyze the current situation in the world about acute hunger and the projection of the problem in 2022.  The result of the study revealed that acute hunger will worsen critically in more than 20 countries (including some regions such as the Sahel) in the coming months unless immediate and urgent measures are implemented.

Colombia, along with Haiti and Honduras, are among the 20 countries that the organization considers to be in a critical state, with Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen at the top of the list.  According to the study, the reasons that increase food insecurity are violence, armed conflict, prolonged economic crises, migration and climate change.

According to FAO's criteria, in 2020, about 65% of people living under acute food insecurity are in countries where there are armed conflicts, and figures indicate that levels of violence against civilians continued to increase in 2021.

The study revealed that in Colombia there is a combination of political instability, economic challenges and the continuing impact of the regional migration crisis amplified by internal displacement.

In the same vein, it highlights that delays in the implementation of the 2016 peace agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), have led to new waves of violent attacks, with 61 000 new IDPs between January and September 2021, three times the levels of 2020.