ReliefWeb

“It is vital and urgent that we provide food assistance to the growing number of vulnerable people in the region ... We still have time to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from becoming a hunger pandemic.”

This coordinated appeal builds on the previous one on 26 March and aims to increase life-saving services and support to address immediate impacts of the pandemic and long-lasting economic repercussions.

By 18 May, 14,938 individuals had been pre-registered. The situation in Sudan remains volatile and on 17 May, reports were received of the arrival in Chad of 1,600 people after an incident in West Darfur.

"We cannot and must not underestimate the damage to lives and livelihoods that the convergence of these crises will have on food security and hunger in this part of the world," said FAO's Kim.

This fundraising effort is an essential step to provide aid to more than five million refugees and migrants from Venezuela living in the region in the middle of the coronavirus crisis.

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic could increase the number of children in household poverty by 15 percent before the end of 2020, according to Save the Children and UNICEF.

Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are among the top 10 countries in the world with the worst food crises by number of people in crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) with nearly 40 million suffering.

Humanitarian projects to war-torn Yemen are reaching breaking point and about $870 million is needed to continue giving life-saving aid to millions of people for the next six months, WFP warned.