Number of people living in famine conditions increased sixfold in 2020

World hunger rose steeply in 2020, with six times more people living in "famine-like conditions" than in 2019, according to rights group Oxfam. The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated existing crises caused by conflict and climate change.

REUTERS/Feisal Omar

"Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, vulnerable communities around the world have been sending a clear, urgent and repeated message: 'Hunger may kill us before coronavirus'. Today, deaths from hunger are outpacing the virus," Oxfam said in a statement.

The rights and aid group calculates that 11 people are dying from acute hunger every minute, compared to seven people a minute from Covid-19.

The group identified places including Yemen, the Central African Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Venezuela and Syria as countries where existing food crises had been worsened by the onset of the pandemic and its economic consequences.

"Mass unemployment and severely disrupted food production have led to a 40 percent rise in global food prices, the largest increase in more than a decade," Oxfam said.

The leading humanitarian and anti-poverty group Oxfam says that 11 people die of hunger each minute and that the number of people facing famine-like conditions around the globe has increased six times over the last year. https://t.co/V2aA1LUjYw

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Millions facing extreme hunger

In total, it said over half a million people are living in "famine-like conditions" around the world, while 155 million live with "extreme hunger" -- the equivalent of the combined populations of France and Germany.

Of the 155 million, two out of three live in a country with ongoing war or conflict.

"Conflict remained the biggest driver of hunger around the globe for three consecutive years, including during the pandemic," the group said.

"We are currently seeing the superimposition of crises: unceasing conflicts, the economic consequences of Covid-19 and a spiralling climate crisis," said Hélène Botreau, Agriculture and Food Security Advocacy Officer at Oxfam France.

Oxfam's analysis comes ahead of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation's own report on global food security, due to be published on Monday.