New York: The ripple effects of the war in Ukraine are increasing the suffering of millions of people by escalating food and energy prices and worsening a financial crisis, coming on top of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, a U.N. report said Wednesday.
The U.N. Global Crisis Response Group said the war “has exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation” and it is undermining U.N. aspirations to end extreme poverty around the globe and achieve 16 other goals for a better world by 2030. Guterres, who chairs the group, said at a news conference that “the war’s impact on food security, energy, and finance is systemic, severe and speeding up.”
“Without fertilizers, shortages will spread from corn and wheat to all staple crops, including rice, with a devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America, too,” he said.
According to the report, about 180 million people in 41 of 53 countries where data was available are forecast to be facing a food crisis or worse conditions this year, and 19 million more people are expected to face “chronic undernourishment globally in 2023.”
“This year’s food crisis is about lack of access,” he added. “Next year’s could be about lack of food.”
