UN adds another 100 million people to 'new hungry' list

18 April 2009

The United Nations has warned that the global economic crisis could create up to 100 million ''new hungry'' as it wipes out jobs in poorer countries.

Speaking ahead of an ''Agriculture Summit'' organised by the G-8 nations, which will run from 18 April to 20 April at Treviso in Italy, David Nabarro, a UN assistant secretary general and coordinator of a task force on global food security, said the crisis would swell the ranks of the estimated one billion who are at risk of malnutrition.

''The evidence that we have, still anecdotal, is that the problem is starting up,'' said Nabarro.

''The figure and estimate that has been put on the number of new hungry that are likely to result from the crisis by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is between 50 and 100 million,'' he told journalists.

The threat brought about by unemployment would be grafted on to the food crisis caused by rising prices last year, which triggered riots in some countries. The ILO estimated in January that two years of global financial and economic meltdown could add 50 million more people to the ranks of the world's unemployed by the end of 2009, threatening social unrest.

''We're anticipating that, with the reduction of their purchasing power as a result of this unemployment, they are going to be facing extreme problems with ensuring that they could feed themselves and their families,'' Nabarro said.