ADDIS ABABA, March 10 (Xinhua) -- With nearly 300 million people facing food insecurity in Africa, it is imperative to implement continental programs and accelerate actions towards eliminating hunger and malnutrition, a senior African Union (AU) official said Tuesday.
Moses Vilakati, AU commissioner for agriculture, rural development, blue economy, and sustainable environment, made the remarks at the official launch of the 2025 Global Hunger Index (GHI) at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
Vilakati said that African countries lagged in implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which required them to eradicate hunger, halve poverty, and triple intra-African agricultural trade and build resilience by 2025.
"According to the 2025 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations report, nearly 300 million people on the continent are food insecure. This aligns with the CAADP biennial review, which shows that no member state was on track to achieve zero hunger by 2025. Alarmingly, the continent spends up to 100 billion U.S. dollars each year on food imports," he said.
Vilakati called on African governments to recommit to zero hunger through policy reforms, smarter investments, and enhanced accountability mechanisms.
"We must strengthen agrifood systems, invest in climate resilience, improve our soil productivity, expand social protection and safety nets, empower women and youth across value chains, and promote innovation that improves productivity and market access, while mitigating food loss and wastage," the commissioner said.
The 2025 GHI revealed that chances for achieving zero hunger by 2030 worldwide are slipping away, while undernourishment, child stunting, and child mortality levels are far from international targets.
According to the 2025 GHI, various challenges, including climate change, armed conflicts, economic fragility, and political disengagement, exacerbate the situation of hunger in Africa and beyond.
The 2025 GHI scores show that hunger is considered alarming in seven countries, namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen.
The index flagged conflict as the most destructive force driving hunger in different parts of the world, with armed violence fueling 20 food crises affecting nearly 140 million people last year. ■