MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The number of people going hungry in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua has nearly quadrupled in the last two years, the United Nations said on Tuesday, as Central America has been battered by an economic crisis.
New data released by the UN’s World Food Program showed nearly 8 million people across the four countries are experiencing hunger this year, up from 2.2 million in 2018.
“The COVID-19-induced economic crisis had already put food on the market shelves out of reach for the most vulnerable people when the twin hurricanes Eta and Iota battered them further,” said Miguel Barreto, WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, in a statement referring to the two hurricanes to hit Central America in November.
The World Food Program also said that 15% of those surveyed by the organization in January 2021 said that they were making concrete plans to migrate – nearly double the percentage in 2018.
(Reporting by Noe Torres, writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
