More poor people around the world will die from hunger by the end of this year than from COVID-19 unless governments forcefully intervene to prevent it, warns Oxfam, the Kenya-based humanitarian organization focused on alleviating global poverty.
Among the expanding ranks of the poor will be 54 million Americans, or one-sixth of the population of the United States.
Oxfam estimates 12,000 poor people might die daily from hunger linked to the pandemic. In contrast, data from Johns Hopkins University reveals the pandemic's deadliest day worldwide thus far was April 17 when 8,890 deaths were recorded.
"The pandemic is the final straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers," said Chema Vera, Oxfam Interim Executive Director.
Oxfam warns the pandemic "has added fuel to the fire of an already growing hunger crisis."
Some 821 million people were food insecure in 2019 and 149 million of them suffered "crisis-level hunger or worse," said Oxfam. Current projections estimate the number of people experiencing crisis-level hunger might reach 270 million in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. This figure is a massive 80% increase over 2019.
Already in anguish, the poor are seeing their lot turn from bad to worse because the pandemic has led to incredible unemployment rates. In Venezuela, for example, about half the workforce stands to be unemployed by the end of this year. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects a jobless rate of nearly 50% in 2020 -- the highest in the world.
Apart from the loss of jobs in their home countries, those among the poor that rely on remittances from relatives working abroad are seeing this money diminish, as well. The travel restrictions imposed by governments to quell the spread of COVID-19 are also badly hurting migrant workers and farmers that have to travel far from home to work.
Taken together, all these crippling problems created by COVID-19 are worsening global hunger. And these problems are much worse for the poor living in conflict areas like Yemen and Syria.
Oxfam identified 10 extreme hunger hotspots around the world where both the pandemic and hunger stalk their populations. These hotspots are Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the West African Sahel, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Haiti.
The poor in the United States are also suffering greatly. An additional 17 million Americans in might become food insecure in 2020 because of the pandemic. That will bring the total number of impoverished Americans to 54 million people, or one in six Americans.
"This is a 46% increase over the 37 million people who were food insecure prior to the COVID-19 crisis," said Emily Engelhard, a managing director at Feeding America.
