Rome _ Agencies
Some 821 million people, one in nine people in the world, did not have enough food in the year, UN agencies said in a report criticizing the world´s high hunger rates. 2017
According to the report, "Food security and nutrition in the world", "Hunger in the world has escalated over the past three years, going back to the levels of a decade ago."
"Malnutrition and acute food insecurity appear to be increasing in most regions of Africa as well as in South America, while the situation of malnutrition in most regions of Asia is stable," the report warned.
The Eastern African region, which includes countries in conflict like Eritrea and South Sudan, has been classified as the hardest hit region, with a population of about 31 percent of its citizens suffering from malnutrition.
The United Nations Children´s Fund (UNFPA), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Agriculture and Food Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are jointly producing the annual report.
The United Nations had observed a high rate of hunger for the first time last year.
United Nations agencies said that conflict, economic decline and natural disasters were responsible for this negative trend, with agencies expressing concern that the United Nations target of zero hunger by 2030 had been jeopardized.
"The number of disasters associated with climate variability, such as extreme heat, drought, floods and storms, has doubled since the early 1990s," the latest UN report said.
The report concluded today that 151 million children under five years of ages, or 22 percent of the world´s total, suffer from weak growth, while 672 million people, or 13 percent of the total adult population, suffer from obesity.
The decline in hunger has been a big success story until recently, largely due to the rapid economic development of Asia. In 2015, the United Nations praised the fact that more than 200 million people had been removed from the hunger cycle a year ago. 1990
