COP27: UN warns of increasing hunger in Africa due to climate crisis

As COP27 delegates in Egypt debate planet-heating emissions, the climate crisis is exacerbating devastating hunger across several African nations and will worsen further without urgent action, the United Nations has said.

"If drastic measures are not taken urgently, hunger will increase as climate change is felt everywhere, most intensely in vulnerable areas, such as Sudan," said Zitouni Ould-Dada, from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), on Wednesday.

Sudan is among the East African nations facing "acute food insecurity", the Famine Early Warnings Systems Network warned earlier this month, highlighting the dire situation, especially in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

As the COP27 summit opened, a joint statement from over a dozen UN agencies and major charities warned the Horn of Africa was gripped by the "longest and most severe drought in recent history", warning that parts of Somalia are "projected to face famine".

Africa is home to some of the countries least responsible for carbon emissions but hardest hit by an onslaught of weather extremes.

Around a third of Sudan's population, over 15 million people, will need aid next year, the highest level for over a decade, according to the World Food Program (WFP).

READ MORE: UN: Third of Sudan's population faces acute food insecurity

'Political will'

The climate summit in Egypt, billed as the "African COP", must be where the continent's food security is addressed, said Ould-Dada, deputy director of the FAO's Climate and Environment Division.

But despite the vast resources of the continent, many nations are reliant on importing food, Ould-Dada added.

"It does not make sense for Africa to import 40 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine when it itself is so rich in resources," he said, on the sidelines of the climate talks in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

"It takes political will to fight poverty and hunger globally."

Though linking the heating planet to conflict is complex, the International Crisis Group calls climate change "a threat multiplier" that increases "food insecurity, water scarcity and resource competition, while disrupting livelihoods and spurring migration."

Increasing demands on dwindling natural resources have fuelled inter-ethnic conflict in Sudan, including the 2003 war that erupted in the arid western region of Darfur.

With agriculture and livestock accounting for 43 percent of employment and 30 percent of GDP, conflicts over livestock and access to water and land continue.

According to the UN, 800 people have been killed this year and more than 260,000 displaced in conflict across Sudan.