[ad_1]
While accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in an online ceremony due to the Coronavirus, the World Food Program is warning of the danger that some 270 million people are heading towards starvation.
-
People wear masks to prevent coronavirus and buy clothes in a market in Karachi (AFP).
Today, Thursday, when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in an online ceremony for the emerging coronavirus, the World Food Program warned of a “hunger pandemic”, the consequences of which will be worse than “Covid-19”.
“Due to many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon and a global pandemic that greatly increases the severity of all this, 270 million people are heading towards starvation,” said the executive director of the US World Food Program
“Failing to meet their needs will cause a hunger pandemic that will hide the Covid-19 epidemic,” he said in quoted statements from the agency’s headquarters in Rome.
“Due to so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that worsens all of that exponentially, 270 million people are marching towards hunger.”
– World Food Program 2020 Laureate for Peace. pic.twitter.com/vHGR5Kd6bH
– The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) December 10, 2020
The Food Program, the largest humanitarian organization against hunger, was founded in 1961 and annually provides food to millions of hungry people (97 million last year) on all continents.
By nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, the Norwegian Nobel Committee welcomed a battle fought by the Food Program over a “weapon of war” that primarily targets civilians.
Faced with attempts at national recession, “the World Food Program represents the kind of international cooperation and commitment the world urgently needs today,” said Brett Reese-Andersen, president of the Nobel Institute at the Nobel Institute, which was empty of revelers. .
‘A call to action’
The Nobel Peace Prize is usually awarded in Oslo during a solemn ceremony on December 10 and in Stockholm for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics, but this year the pandemic has changed traditions.
The giant parties and lavish banquets attended by the Kings are canceled, and this year the organizers are content with modest virtual initiatives.
Exceptionally, the gold medal and the “Nobel” certificate were sent to Rome with the diplomatic bag.
“This Nobel Peace Prize is more than grateful, it is a call to action”, emphasized Beasley, “the famine is approaching the world”, considering that “ensuring food is the way to achieve peace.”
“On the one hand, after a century of great progress in terms of eliminating extreme poverty, 270 million people are today on the brink of starvation,” he said.
“On the other hand, the world’s wealth today is estimated at $ 400 billion. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, in just 90 days, an additional wealth estimated at $ 2.7 billion was created. Only we need five billion dollars to save 30 million people from the inevitable famine, “added Beasley.
In recent weeks, WFP has expressed concern about the risks of famine in Burkina Faso, South Sudan, northeastern Nigeria and Yemen.
And earlier this month, the United Nations launched a humanitarian appeal to raise aid of a “record value”, amounting to 35,000 million dollars by 2021, to face the repercussions of the “Covid-19” pandemic.
With the continuation of the epidemic crisis, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the world during the year 2021 will reach a new record, reaching 235 million people. An increase of 40 percent compared to 2020, according to the humanitarian response plans coordinated by the United Nations.
[ad_2]
