Covid-19 to escalate hunger, malnutrition in Africa: WHO
Geneva/UNI: The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed its apprehensions that the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to severely impact food security in many African nations as agricultural activities have become a casualty of the pandemic.
WHO's Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said on Thursday that the contagious disease could undermine efforts to tackle malnutrition and endemic hunger in the continent.
Moeti said that hunger and undernourishment are likely to aggravate in the continent as the pandemic threatens livelihoods and household economies. She also lamented that hunger itself heightens vulnerability to diseases.
WHO statistics estimate that one in every five people in Africa is undernourished and 30 percent of children under five years have stunted growth.
The WHO has stressed that people with weak immune system due to undernourishment are likely to be severely affected by the virus.
Nearly 73 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are currently food insecure due to combined impact of invasion from desert locusts on farms and climatic shocks that threaten staple foods such as maize.
WHO feels that the Corona virus pandemic has escalated food shortages as containment measures like curfews, lockdowns and physical distancing measures hamper storage, processing and transportation of food.
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