Having lived in a tent in the Mugunga camp in the east Democratic Republic of Congo Since February, Sifa* has been constantly worried about how she will feed her children.

In the face of fighting between government forces and M23 rebels, Sifa made the difficult decision to leave home with her nine-year-old daughter and her husband – with another three children now in the care of her grandmother – in order to ensure safety and a future for them looking for family. Since their escape, Sifa’s family has lost significant weight and fallen into a state of malnutrition. She gave birth to another child, a son, in the camp.

“I have had difficulty feeding my child since the birth three months ago,” said the 33-year-old mother The Independent. “Despite my efforts to feed him, my breast milk is insufficient and lacks the necessary nutrients to satiate him.”

She is aware that her breast milk supply would increase if she had more food herself, but her priority is not to feed herself with the limited rations, but to feed her daughter.

“She already has to beg for food every day and goes to sleep hungry,” Sifa said. “I make sure I give her what little we have.”

As Sifa and her family continue to desperately search for food to stay alive, governments, international organizations, scientists and private companies gathered in London on Monday for a “reset moment” to the global food crisis.

On the agenda: finding new approaches to combat preventable child deaths due to food insecurity.

Save the children says that a child will be born hunger every two seconds in 2023. That’s more than 17.6 million children, a fifth more than a decade ago.

The analysis shows that children in all parts of the world, particularly in places such as East Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistanare facing one of the worst hunger crises of all time.

“Climate-related droughts, ongoing economic turmoil and conflict forcing people to leave their homes have impacted people’s ability to cope and put nutritious food out of reach for millions,” said Callum Northcote, head of hunger and nutrition at Save the Children UK. “The worst thing is that in many cases countries are struggling with all of these factors at the same time.”

Northcote said the conflict in Ukraine also contributed to the hunger crisis.

“It has had a devastating impact on food prices worldwide,” he said. “For many, the essentials became unaffordable.”

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the number of children born into hunger is the highest since records began.

Although Sifa and her husband are uncomfortable sending their daughter to beg, a dangerous task for a young girl, the couple has no other choice.

“I try to keep an eye on her to make sure no one hurts her,” she said.

Sifa’s husband looked for a job so the family could buy more food, but was “constantly rejected.”

“On one occasion when he asked around, he was attacked and beaten so badly that he had to be taken to hospital,” she said. “We rely on humanitarian aid, otherwise we would not have survived for so long.”

Sifa has already lost two children – one to malaria and cholera, the other to one of the armed groups that invaded her village – and is constantly afraid of losing another.

“There is always something that takes my children away from me,” she said. “If it is not war, it is lack of food. If that’s not the case, then it’s a disease. I am afraid for my children’s health. I’m afraid I’ll wake up and find my baby is gone.”

Sifa’s fears are not unfounded. According to Save the Children, about a fifth more newborns will be affected by hunger this year than in 2013, when 14.4 million children were born into the clutches of hunger.

“Hunger will destroy their dreams, silence their play, disrupt their education and threaten their lives,” Northcote said. “These children’s futures are already at risk before they even take their first breath. We must protect their childhood and future before it is too late.”

Ten months ago, Marium* was born in Afghanistan to 23-year-old Zolaikha* and is one of the approximately 440,000 children estimated to be born into hunger in Afghanistan this year.

Most days, Zolaikha’s family of four eats only bread and rice. They rarely eat fruits or vegetables and the last time they ate meat was four months ago.

When she was just six months old, Marium developed persistent diarrhea and was later diagnosed with pneumonia due to a weakened immune system.

“Two months ago she became very weak,” Zolaikha said The Independent. “She was extremely weak. She cried all the time and was constantly in pain or discomfort and had a high fever. I always cried with her. It was hard to see my daughter in pain.”

Her other child was also severely malnourished and had frequent diarrhea that turned into pneumonia.

“This is because they drink unsafe water and do not have enough nutritious food,” Zolaikha said.

At the meeting of heads of state and government in London, Northcote hopes for progress like in the past. While some progress has been made in addressing child hunger over the past two decades, it began to decline significantly in 2019, largely due to economic instability, conflict and the worsening climate crisis.

“We urge the UK government to increase funding and work with the international community to find shared solutions that ensure children and their families have access to good, nutritious food to prevent hunger and malnutrition,” Northcote said .

“Hunger is not a lost cause,” he added. “We have the power to significantly reduce the number of malnourished children now, as we have done in the past. But unless we address the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, we will continue to see a reversal in progress for children. This is a global hunger crisis that requires a global solution. [This] The summit is a good step, but it must be accompanied by an increase in funding.”

*Names have been changed