Starvation triggered by coronavirus likely to kill 30m people

The head of the World Food Programme, who recently recovered from COVID-19, says at least 30 million people could die of starvation if the UN agency doesn’t receive critical funding needed to feed the world’s most vulnerable during the global pandemic.

David Beasley, executive director of WFP, says the organization relies on the financial support of governments to feed nearly 100 million people around the world, including 30 million who rely on life-saving food. As the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to hurt the world economy, Mr. Beasley says he is concerned governments will cut funding for WFP – a decision that could have grave consequences.

“If we lost our funding … a minimum 30 million would die. Over a three-month period, that would be 300,000 people dying per day,” Ms. Beasley said.

“That’s why leaders have got to balance out the COVID response with keeping the economy going because otherwise a lot more people will die from starvation and economic deterioration than from COVID itself.”

Mr. Beasley spoke to The Globe and Mail by phone from his home in Darlington, S.C., where he recently recovered from the coronavirus. He started developing symptoms on March 13, after returning from weeks of travel, including a trip to Ottawa for the opening of WFP’s new office in Canada. Initially he thought it was allergies, but as symptoms disappeared and reappeared, he decided to get tested. The result was positive.

Source: Agencies


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