UN official: Conflicts, climate change, terrorism cause hunger

CAIRO - 15 December 2019: Executive Director of the United Nations Food Program David Peasley stressed that humanitarian conflicts, climate change and terrorism have caused high rates of hunger around the world.

Peasley’s speech came during the food security in Africa session as part of the third edition of the World Youth Forum held in Sharm el-Sheikh under the auspices of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi

“If we do not have food security, we will not have security at all." Peasley said.

The UN official added that 90 million people do not have access to food, revealing that the rate of hunger worldwide has increased during the past 25 years to 77 million, and that 250 million people are on the verge of starvation, as they do not know whether they will eat the next meal.

For his side, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Xu Donyo said that there is an increase in hunger rates around the world due to malnutrition and lack of food security in Africa and the Middle East.



Donyo explained that Africa has the youngest population in the world,as 1.6 billion young people are under 35 years old, representing 85 percent of the continent's population; hence, that the future of Africa is filled with opportunities for young adults.

He added that health rates are deteriorating among the youth and children due to the difficulties faced by families on the continent, clarifying that several countries in the region are concerned with the youth's health, but the countries where problems and conflicts are widespread, such as Syria and Somalia, do not care about their youth.

Donyo thanked President Sisi and the Egyptian Government for the continuous efforts exerted in the field of youth participation in various fields. "I am happy to be in the World Youth Forum for the first time."

For her part, Minister of Youth and Sports of Rwanda, Rose Mary Mobizi, said that serious care must be given to how to maintain a balanced consumption of lunch, noting that food security is the most important security we can talk about.



"In order to achieve food security, we need to empower women, who make up half of the society. In many African countries, we find that women take over the management of the family and therefore we must provide them with the environment necessary to achieve food security,”Mobizi continued.

Mobizi explained that Rwanda seeks to support young people and provide special programs for their participation in achieving food security in Rwanda and to support their presence in agricultural lands.

The forum kicked off on Saturday in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el Sheikh with the participation of 7,000 youths.

A number of senior officials attended the session, including Foreign Minister SamehShoukry, Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed AbulGheit, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Yousef bin Ahmed Al-Othaimeen and Secretary General of the Security and Cooperation Organization in Europe Paul Bekkers.