According to the World Bank, the Central American country of Hondurus is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Data for the latest available year (2019) – before the double impact of Covid and hurricanes Eta and Iota – shows that 4.8 million people, almost half the population, live on less than $5.50 (£4.40) a day, the second-highest poverty rate in the region after Haiti.
Levels of hunger are rapidly getting worse. According to the Central American Integration System (SICA), a regional intergovernmental body, 2.6 million Hondurans will experience crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity between now and August, up from 2.2 million at the beginning of the year. In the south, which lies within the “dry corridor” of Central America – through parts of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica – experts predict famine within months.
Ramón Turcios, southern regional director for the Honduran agriculture ministry, says: “Hunger is definitely going to get worse. We can’t give a good prognosis. In the south, there is a good chance there will be a famine, possibly in September,” he says. “I am very worried.”
Fears for Honduran children as poverty worsens pneumonia’s toll | Global development | The Guardian
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