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Gheit stresses on mobilising efforts to tackle food security challenges
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Thursday, 06 July, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Cairo
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At the 40th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations Conference, currently underway in Rome, Arab League (AL) chief Ahmad Abul Gheit stressed the importance of mobilising international efforts to tackle challenges to water and food security in the Arab region. This was said in an AL statement.
“Nearly seven million persons in Yemen, which has been experiencing a fierce civil war, are facing the dangers of famine, which made the country a base for the severest food security crisis in modern history,” he added.
“The armed conflicts in countries of Syria, Libya and Somalia are similar (to Yemen). They require unifying regional and international efforts to provide the necessary aid for people in harm,” the AL statement quoted Gheit as saying.
The AL chief highlighted that the region was subject to water scarcity, drought and food insecurity, which are all phenomena that have been growing since civil wars erupted in some Arab countries after the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
The FAO Conference, which groups over 600 high-level government officials and representatives from 194 countries, will conclude on July 8. It will mainly focus on issues and policies related to global food security.
Gheit added that the water, agriculture and climate changes files were the main reasons for the instability of the region, and would shadow a negative impact on the future of the regional countries.
According to a 2016 report of the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), which was co-sponsored by the United Nations Food Agency, nearly 108 million people were reported to be facing crisis-level food insecurity, a drastic increase from the previous year’s total of almost 80 million.
The FSIN report added that in 2017, widespread food insecurity is likely to persist in Iraq, Syria (including its refugees in neighbouring countries), Malawi and Zimbabwe.
It added that there was a high risk of famine in some areas of north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen because of armed conflict, drought and macro-economic collapse.
(Source: Xinhua)
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