While the depth of the food crises in both places is new, the underlying conditions are not, said Tobias Stillman, director of technical services and innovation at the aid group Action Against Hunger, via email.Even before the war, 80% of Gazans relied on humanitarian aid and nearly half of all households didn’t have enough food, he said. In Haiti, millions were already coping with emergency levels of hunger and crisis levels of food need.“When families and entire nations live so close to the brink, it is all too easy for conflict or other shocks to push them into catastrophe,” Stillman said.What are hunger, Malnutrition and starvation?Hunger is the informal term for the feeling that occurs “when our bodies need or expect food,” Stillman said. Aid groups say hunger occurs when people can’t afford or physically obtain sufficient nutrition for an extended period of time.Malnutrition is a medical condition that occurs when people don’t get the right calories to grow and function properly, leading to health problems. The deadliest form of malnutrition is severe acute malnutrition, which occurs when children are too thin for their height.
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