SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Nearly 55 million people face hunger in West and Central Africa

Dakar. Senegal Reuters Soaring prices have helped fuel a food crisis in West and Central Africa, where nearly 55 million people will struggle to feed themselves in the coming months, UN humanitarian agencies warned on Friday. The number facing hunger during the June-August lean season has quadrupled over the last five years, they said, noting […]

Surging bird flu outbreaks raise human-infection risk, UN agencies warn

A South African National Parks ranger monitors a group of African penguins at Cape Town's famous Boulders penguin colony, a popular tourist attraction and an important breeding site which which are suffering an outbreak of avian flu in Cape Town, South Africa, on 27th September, 2022.

Reuters Three UN agencies on Wednesday warned that an ongoing rise in avian flu outbreaks globally raised concerns that the virus might adapt to infect humans more easily, and urged countries to strengthen disease surveillance and improve hygiene at poultry farms.  A South African National Parks ranger monitors a group of African penguins at Cape […]

West Africa faces acute food shortages with thousands near famine, say UN agencies

General view shows the submerged red sorghum field after heavy rain in Kournari village, on the outskirts of Ndjamena, Chad, on 26th October, 2022.

Dakar, Senegal Reuters Forty-eight million people in West and Central Africa face acute food insecurity in the coming months, a 10-year high spurred by insecurity, climate shocks, COVID-19 and high prices, United Nations humanitarian agencies warned on Tuesday. West and Central Africa has faced increasing risks caused by higher temperatures and erratic rainfall. War in […]

World food prices hit record high in 2022

Russia Rostov harvesters

Paris, FranceReuters A surge in the cost of most food commodities last year, as the disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raised concerns of shortages, sent the UN food agency’s average price index to the highest level on record. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index, which tracks international prices of the most […]

Dying lands: Farmers fight to save the “skin of the Earth”

China Jiangxi crops

ROD NICKEL, AYENAT MERSIE, DAVID STANWAY and XIAOYU YIN, of Reuters, report on how human efforts to preserve soil are proving no match for increasingly extreme weather, which is damaging the living system and depleting its ability to produce food…

World hunger rising as UN agencies warn of “looming catastrophe”

Somalia Dollow displaced girl

London, UKReuters World hunger levels rose again last year after soaring in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Ukraine war and climate change threatening starvation and mass migration on an “unprecedented scale” this year, according to UN agencies. Up to 828 million people, or nearly 10 per cent of the world’s population, were […]

“Widen gaze from Ukraine” to avert famine in Somalia, UN agency warns

Somalia Somaliland family

London, UKReuters The world must “widen its gaze from the war in Ukraine” to prevent Somalia sliding into famine, the United Nations’ children’s agency said on Tuesday, warning only a third of the $US250 million needed to stave off catastrophe had so far been raised. Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in the Horn of […]

Famine risk rises in Somalia as rains fail, food prices soar – UN

Somalia Kaxareey camp graves

London, UKReuters Nearly a quarter of a million people are facing starvation in Somalia as a drought worsens and global food prices hover near record highs, United Nations agencies said on Monday. The agencies said a fourth consecutive rainy season had failed in the Horn of Africa country and meteorologists were warning of another below-average […]