The World Bank has identified some countries as “hotspots” for acute food insecurity over the next 12 months.
They are Nigeria, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and others.
Nigeria is the only West African country in that group.
According to a report, the global bank stated that in Sub-Saharan Africa, the frequency of climate shocks has made maintaining long-term food production growth increasingly harder, compounding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security.
It also said the impacts of the pandemic have dramatically increased food insecurity in the poorest and most vulnerable countries served by the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).
Reports from the World Food Programme (WFP) reveal that up to 96 million additional people were pushed into acute food insecurity in 2020 across 54 International Development Association ( IDA) countries.
Added to the 137 million acutely food insecure people at the end of 2019 across these countries, this brings the total to 233 million people by the end of 2020.
It also stressed that people living in fragile and conflict-affected situations are particularly at risk.
The report said World Bank projections based on the application of the findings from a stochastic model to predict food insecurity suggest this could further increase to about 330 million in 2021.
