World Food Programme wins Nobel Peace Prize

Murtaza Jaffer

Press TV, London

As the year comes to a close, so to does the Nobel peace prize ceremony, only this time history was made with the committee in Sweden, while the laureates appeared on screen socially distant across the globe.

Awards were handed for numerous categories, but the feature standout remains the Peace prize. In this pandemic year, with economies reeling and record numbers of refugees fleeing war, famine and disease, the UN World Food Programme was awarded the prize for its efforts tackling hunger across the globe.

It's hard to imagine us going through a famine like that. But my tragic duty today is to tell you, famine is at humanity's doorstep for millions and millions of people on Earth."

Because of so many wars, climate change, the widespread use of hunger as a political and military weapon, and a global health pandemic that makes all of that exponentially worse - 270 million people are marching toward starvation. Failure to address their needs will cause a hunger pandemic which will dwarf the impact of COVID

270 million people is equivalent to the combined populations of the UK, Germany, France and Italy. all at the brink of starvation. Whatsmore the coronavirus pandemic has sharply escalated the severity of the crises. as senior U.N officials convened at the general assembly, the message was clear, 2021 is shaping up to be an even greater humanitarian catastrophe as global coronavirus cases continue to accelerate. with Vaccines offering a way out, the fear remains that poorer nations will be left behind.

According to the UN, global measures to tackle the virus have fuelled a 40% increase in the number of people relying on humanitarian help, and have appealed once again for wealthier nations to assist developing countries struggling to cope.

Vaccines are currently being administered in the UK Canada and Russia with various western nations soon to begin the roll out, However the nature of the pandemic is such, failing to tackle the problem globally will only mean the threat of another wave that will only delay a return back to normal.

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