BRUSSELS—Rising food prices and extreme weather are sparking
more humanitarian disasters around the world, the United Nations’ top official
for emergency relief warned on Tuesday.
Fourteen out of 15 UN "flash appeals" for help last year were
a response to devastation caused by droughts, floods and hurricanes, UN
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
John Holmes said.
"That is five more than in any other year," Holmes said
during a visit to European Union headquarters in Brussels.
"We are seeing them (disasters) increase in intensity and
number," he told a news conference, saying weather events could not always be
directly linked with climate change.
Holmes cited growing demand for food in China and India, a
shift towards more meat-oriented diets and the use of foodstuffs in biofuels as
driving what he called a structural change in food prices that put some staples
beyond the reach of the poor.
A recent rise in wheat flour prices in Afghanistan had hit
poor people hard, and similar humanitarian consequences of food price inflation
were feared in Pakistan and Bangladesh, he said.
"This poses a double challenge for the World Food Program.
Not only is the price increasing but the need is going up because of the
hunger," he said.
The UN body is overseeing an international target of halving
the proportion of hungry people in the world.
