Amman – The situation in Gaza, coupled with protracted crises in Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, is of “great concern,” the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said Monday as he addressed the 37th session of the FAO Regional Ministerial Conference for the Near East and North Africa (NENA).
The conference in Amman brought together government officials, academics and representatives of the private sector and civil society from the region and took place against the backdrop of a worrying rise in hunger and malnutrition estimates.
According to FAO’s latest figures, hunger in the Arab States reached its highest value since the start of the millennium in 2022, with 59.8 million undernourished people. This represents a 75.9 percent increase from 2000, which corresponds to 12.9 percent of the population, well above the global average of 9.2 percent.
The situation has since reached a critical point in Gaza, where the population is experiencing catastrophic levels of conflict-induced food insec