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Wed, 2 Dec 04:19:18 GMT17

 
African hunger

Last reviewed: 11-11-2009

THE NEVER-ENDING CRISIS


A woman carries water past empty granaries in the village of Madoufa in northwestern Niger, August 2005. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
A woman carries water past empty granaries in the village of Madoufa in northwestern Niger, August 2005. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly
About 265 million people are chronically malnourished across sub-Saharan Africa.

  • Millions without the means to sustain their way of life
  • Rising food and transport costs

    Despite years of emergency and development aid, underlying problems such as poverty, HIV/AIDS and climate change remain unsolved. Traditional social organisations and welfare systems capable of looking after the most vulnerable are collapsing under the weight of extreme poverty combined with explosive rates of HIV infection.

    Soaring food costs have exacerbated the situation for the poorest, especially the urban poor, and pushed more people closer to the edge of emergency.

    Increasingly, organisations such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation are saying aid should be provided in the form of cash or food coupons rather than food shipments, which can affect producers and markets in recipient countries and distort international trade.

    In the search for solutions, the debate over hunger in Africa continues to attract a complex range of intersecting and often contradictory opinions, theories, interests and ambitions. It is also characterised by an almost complete lack of global consensus as to what needs to be done about it.


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    Prominent Western Sahara independence campaigner Aminatou Haidar smiles during her hunger strike at Guacimeta airport, on Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands December 1, 2009. Haidar has been on hunger strike since ...


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