Briefs for UN Security Council highlight how millions of people remain trapped in a vicious cycle of violence and hunger

Figure: A child in South Sudan where conflict has dramatically worsened food insecurity.

Joint FAO-WFP news release

FAO 29 July 2016, Rome - Protracted conflicts affecting 17 countries have driven millions of people into severe food insecurity and are hindering global efforts to eradicate malnutrition, two UN agencies have warned in a report submitted to the UN Security Council.

A new series of 17 country briefs prepared by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) and published today finds that conflicts have now pushed over 56 million people into either "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity when expressed in terms used by the Integrated Food Security Classification Phase (IPC) scale.*

Topping the list in terms of the sheer numbers of people whose food security is being negatively impacted by ongoing conflict are Yemen, where 14 million people - over half the population - are now in a state of hunger crisis or emergency on the IPC scale, and Syria, where 8.7 million people - 37 percent of the pre-conflict population - need urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance.

In South Sudan where the situation is rapidly deteriorating 4.8 million people - some 40 percent of the population - are in need of urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance.

And in countries coming out of extended periods of civil strife such as the Central African Republic and Colombia millions of people are still wrestling with high levels of food insecurity.

See more: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/427423/icode/