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UN Food Chief: World Faces 2 Pandemics - COVID-19 and Hunger

VOA News

   The United Nations' food chief warned Tuesday that while the world
   fights the coronavirus pandemic, it is also on the brink of a hunger
   pandemic.

   "Millions of civilians living in conflict-scarred nations, including
   many women and children, face being pushed to the brink of starvation,
   with the specter of famine a very real and dangerous possibility,"
   World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley told a remote
   meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

   Beasley said 821 million people worldwide are chronically hungry, and
   135 million face crisis levels of hunger. With the added stress of
   COVID-19, an additional 130 million people could be pushed to the brink
   of starvation by the end of 2020.

   "In a worst-case scenario, we could be looking at famine in about three
   dozen countries," he warned.

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