ABOUT 32 million Africans face severe food shortages during national lockdowns to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in their countries, a recent research has revealed.

“After an eight-week lockdown, 168 million people would no longer afford the amount of food they were consuming pre-COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa,” Matthieu Teachout, IGC research director revealed.

“In the current forms, and if implemented for eight weeks, lockdowns in sub-Saharan Africa could lead almost 32 million people, including four million children under five years old, to be severely food deprived.

If extended to all countries in sub-Saharan Africa, lockdowns would push almost 78 million people (8% of the population) into extreme hunger.”

“The findings from the study suggest that blanket lockdowns in low-income countries, if not accompanied by massive amounts of aid and social assistance programmes may put even more people at risk of dying than the unmitigated spread of COVID-19 itself,” Teachout said.