Scrounging For Food In 'hunger Hotspot' Colombia

Bogota, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2022 ) :While the Colombian government fumes over being listed as a "hunger hotspot" by UN agencies, Heidy Garzon -- a single mother of nine -- worries where her family's next meal will come from.

"We don't know what we're going to eat tonight," Garzon told AFP in a shantytown neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar in the south of Bogota, two toddlers in diapers clinging to her legs.

Garzon, 38, and her kids live in a ramshackle shanty with six beds to a single clay-floored room in the poorest, most violent part of Ciudad Bolivar.

Most days, they are lucky to eat two meals a day.

On the day AFP visited, the family of 10 breakfasted on a few eggs, some chocolate and corn patties called arepas. They also shared a mango given to them by a shopkeeper.

"Hunger is terrible," Garzon said, adding it is "terrible to feel hungry and not be able to do anything" about it.

Last month, a report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme stated that "7.3 million Colombians are food insecure and in need of food assistance in 2022." The list of 20 "hunger hotspots" also included Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.

In Colombia, the UN agencies blamed "a combination of political instability, economic challenges and the ongoing impact of the regional migratory crisis amplified by internal displacement."Colombia took umbrage at its inclusion on the list, for which it said there was a lack of "factual support, methodological definition and clarity." The government in Bogota demanded that the "hunger hotspot" designation be removed.