The United Nations Secretary General has said that Food is crucial to achieving the Millennium Development Goals set by world leaders in 2000, to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015.
Addressing a meeting of civil society on food security and sustainable development in Madrid, Spain, the UN secretary general said that food is also a matter of peace and security.
He pointed out that when there is nothing to eat, there is serious distrust and frustration, which can lead to social and political instability as witnessed in recent years with riots over food prices in many countries.
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The Secretary-General established a High-level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis following the 2008 food crisis.
Meanwhile Aid agencies say Somali children under the age of five are facing starvation as they flee with their families across the border into Kenya and Ethiopia.
The United Nations refugee agency-UNHCR said on Wednesday that severely malnourished children are dying within 24 hours of reaching its refugee camps.
Melissa Fleming, the UNHCR spokesperson says several children below the age of five years have died of hunger and exhaustion during their journey.
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Statistics from UNHCR show that a quarter of Somalia’s 7.5 million population is either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.
