Africa: UN Agency Pinpoints African Nations As World's Worst 2020 Hunger Spots

Duom Deng Biar is part of a farmers group in Twic East in Jonglei, South Sudan, where a poor harvest has led to widespread hunger. “If I feel hungry, it is okay, but the children should not,” said Duom. “We are feeling hungry. What we have cultivated, we have finished,” she said. The family tried to get a second harvest, but the lack of rain meant that the seeds dried off. “I have a lot of challenges. One son is still in school, and I have to sell our chickens, so that I can pay the school fees,” she said.

Cape Town — Zimbabwe, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central Sahel region dominate the demand for food aid as the world enters 2020, says the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

In an analysis published on New Year's Day, the WFP says millions of people will need help in the coming months.

"The sheer scale and complexity of the challenges in Africa and other regions will stretch the resources and capacity of WFP and other agencies to the limit," the agency adds. Around the world, the analysis points to conflict, instability and economic collapse as combining with climate shocks to contribute to food shortages.

The analysis highlights the crisis in Zimbabwe, where it says "amidst an imploding economy, the situation... is increasingly precarious as the country enters the peak of its 'lean season' when food is at its most scarce and the number of hungry people has reached its highest point in a decade." The WFP plans to provide aid to more than four million Zimbabweans.

Read the WFP's global analysis [PDF]: WFP Global Hotspots 2020

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