WFP: 345 Million Face Acute Hunger - Half Are Children

The WFP estimates that the global food crisis has pushed an additional 23 million under-18s into acute food insecurity since the start of the year, taking the total of children now affected to 153 million. (Reuters)
The WFP estimates that the global food crisis has pushed an additional 23 million under-18s into acute food insecurity since the start of the year, taking the total of children now affected to 153 million. (Reuters)
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WFP: 345 Million Face Acute Hunger - Half Are Children

The WFP estimates that the global food crisis has pushed an additional 23 million under-18s into acute food insecurity since the start of the year, taking the total of children now affected to 153 million. (Reuters)
The WFP estimates that the global food crisis has pushed an additional 23 million under-18s into acute food insecurity since the start of the year, taking the total of children now affected to 153 million. (Reuters)

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) estimates that the global food crisis has pushed an additional 23 million under-18s into acute food insecurity since the start of the year, taking the total of children now affected to 153 million.

This represents nearly half of the 345 million people facing acute hunger, according to WFP data from 82 countries.

School-aged children are bearing the brunt of today’s Global Food Crisis with devastating consequences for their education and their ability to catch up on learning lost during COVID school closures, warned the WFP.

WFP and partners are calling for an ambitious plan of action to restore school meal programs disrupted by the pandemic and expand their reach to an additional 73 million children.

Detailed costing estimates for the plan suggest around $5.8 billion annually would be required.

The plan would supplement wider measures to combat child hunger, including an expansion of child and maternal health programs, support for out-of-school children, and increased investment in safety nets.

Hunger levels among the 250 million children now out of school are almost certainly higher than for those in school, the WFP warns.

School meal programs are among the largest and most effective social safety nets for school-aged children.

They not only keep children, particularly girls, in school, but help improve learning outcomes by providing better and more nutritious diets.

They also support local economies, create jobs and livelihoods in communities, and ultimately help break the links between hunger, an unsustainable food system and the learning crisis.

Separately, the number of people experiencing extreme hunger has more than doubled in some of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, the charity group Oxfam International said in a new report.

The report found that extreme hunger has risen by 123 percent over the past six years in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia and Zimbabwe — the 10 countries with the highest number of United Nations aid appeals driven by extreme weather events.

Across these countries, 48 million people are estimated to suffer from acute hunger, which is defined as hunger resulting from a shock and causing risks to lives and livelihoods.

Oxfam International said Somalia is facing its worst drought on record and one million people have been forced to flee their homes as a result, the report said.

Oxfam said climate-fueled hunger is a "stark demonstration of global inequality" because the least-polluting countries are the most affected by droughts, floods and other extreme weather events.



Oil Dips as Economic Concerns, Supply and Demand Expectations Weigh

A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, US April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, US April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
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Oil Dips as Economic Concerns, Supply and Demand Expectations Weigh

A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, US April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
A pumpjack brings oil to the surface in the Monterey Shale, California, US April 29, 2013. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

Oil prices slipped on Thursday after surging in the previous session on a larger-than-expected draw in US gasoline stocks, as markets weighed macroeconomic concerns and demand versus supply expectations. Brent futures were down 30 cents to $70.65 a barrel at 1140 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 31 cents to $67.37 a barrel.

Both benchmarks rallied about 2% on Wednesday after US government data showed tighter-than-expected oil and fuel inventories.

US gasoline inventories fell by 5.7 million barrels, more than the 1.9 million-barrel draw expected by analysts, while distillate stocks also dropped more than anticipated, despite gains in crude stocks, Reuters reported.

"Declining US gasoline inventories raised expectations for a seasonal demand increase in spring, but concerns about the global economic impact of tariff wars weighed on the market," said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist at Nissan Securities Investment.

"With strong and weak factors progressing simultaneously, it has become difficult for the market to lean decisively in one direction or the other," he added. US President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to escalate a global trade war with further tariffs on European Union goods, as major US trading partners said they would retaliate for trade barriers already erected by the US president.

Trump's focus on tariffs has rattled investors, consumers and business confidence, and raised US recession fears. With the US president's stated commitment to cheaper oil, Citi analysts said their outlook for Brent by the second half of 2025 is $60 a barrel.

Global oil supply could

exceed demand

by around 600,000 barrels per day this year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, revising down its 2025 demand growth forecast. Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said on Wednesday that Kazakhstan led a sizeable jump in February crude output by the wider OPEC+, highlighting a challenge for the producer group in enforcing adherence to agreed output targets, even as it intends to unwind production cuts.

Worries about flagging jet fuel demand weighed further on markets, with JP Morgan analysts saying that US Transportation Security Administration data showed "passenger volumes for March have decreased by 5% year-over-year, following stagnant traffic in February".

However, recent firm global demand numbers limited overall market weakness.

"As of March 11, global oil demand averaged 102.2 million barrels per day, expanding 1.7 million barrels per day year-over-year and exceeding our projected increase for the month by 60,000 barrels per day," the JP Morgan analysts added.