Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud on Thursday (March 28, 2024) said that there has been progress in the government’s efforts to free the Bangladeshi ship MV Abdullah, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean along with 23 sailors on board. “Our aim is to rescue the sailors unharmed and at the same time rescue the ship. I just want to say that we have advanced much,” he told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today. Govt trying to free the hijacked ship and bring back crew members safely as soon as possible: Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud said they are in contact and are making multifaceted efforts to rescue the crew members. Pirates make maiden contact with MV Abdullah’s owner Regarding the reported food shortage on the ship, he said food shortage has never happened in the past when ships have been hijacked. “Hopefully it won’t happen in this case either.” After 9 days of taking the Bangladeshi ship and holding 23 sailors hostage, Somali pirates contacted the owners. Owner of hijacked vessel MV Abdullah doesn’t want armed operation

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened a major political conference dedicated to agricultural improvement, state media reported Monday, amid outside assessments that the country’s chronic food insecurity is getting worse. Recent unconfirmed reports have said an unknown number of North Koreans have died of hunger. But observers have seen no indication of mass deaths or famine in North Korea, though its food shortage has likely deepened due to pandemic-related curbs, persistent international sanctions and its own mismanagements. During a high-level meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that began Sunday, senior party officials reviewed last year’s work under state goals to accomplish “rural revolution in the new era,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported. The report said that the meeting of the party’s Central Committee will determine “immediate, important” tasks on agricultural issues and “urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development.” KNCA didn’t say whether Kim spoke during the meeting or how long it would last. Senior officials such as Cabinet Premier Kim Tok Hun and Jo Yong Won, one of Kim’s closest aides who handles the Central Committee’s organizational affairs, were also attending. The meeting is the party’s first plenary session convened only to discuss agriculture. Monday’s report didn’t elaborate on its agenda, but the party’s powerful Politburo said earlier this month that a “a turning point is needed to dynamically promote radical change in agricultural development.” Most analysts North Korea’s food situation today is nowhere near the extremes of the 1990s, when hundreds of thousands of people died in a famine. However, some experts say its food insecurity is likely at its worst since Kim took power in 2011, after COVID-19 restrictions further shocked an economy battered by decades of mismanagement and crippling U.S.-led sanctions imposed over Kim’s nuclear program. In early 2020, North Korea tried to shield its population from the coronavirus by imposing stringent border controls that choked off trade with China, its main ally and economic lifeline. Russia’s war on Ukraine possibly worsened the situation by driving up global prices of food, energy and fertilizer, on which North Korea’s agricultural production is heavily dependent. After spending more than two years in a strict pandemic lockdown, North Korea last year reopened freight train traffic with China and Russia. More than 90% of North Korea’s official external trade goes through its border with China. Last year, North Korea’s grain production was estimated at 4.5 million tons, a 3.8% drop from 2020, according to South Korean government assessments. The North was estimated to have produced between 4.4 million tons to 4.8 million tons of grain annually from 2012-2021, according to previous South Korean data. North Korea needs about 5.5 million tons of grain to feed its 25 million people annually, so it’s short about 1 million tons this year. In past years, half of such a gap was usually met by unofficial grain purchases from China, with the rest remaining as unresolved shortfall, according to Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at the private GS&J Institute in South Korea. Kwon says trade curbs due to the pandemic have likely hindered unofficial rice purchases from China. Efforts by North Korean authorities to tighten controls and restrict market activities have also worsened the situation, he said. It’s unclear whether North Korea will take any action to quickly address its food problems. Some experts say North Korea will use this week’s plenary meeting to boost public support of Kim during his confrontations with the United States and its allies over his nuclear ambitions. Despite limited resources, Kim has been aggressively pushing to expand his nuclear weapons and missile programs to pressure Washington into accepting the idea of the North as a nuclear power and lift international sanctions on it. After a record year of weapons testing activities in 2022, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile and other weapons in displays this month.  

Every single minute, the global hunger crisis is pushing one child into life-threatening, severe malnutrition, according to the UN Children's Fund UNICEF. It called for $1.2 billion to meet the urgent needs of eight million children at risk of death from severe wasting, mainly in African nations, such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and also Afghanistan and Haiti. The UN agency Thursday said the number of desperately hungry children suffering from severe wasting continued to grow. Between January and June, that number increased by well over 250,000, from 7.67 million to 7.93 million children.This comes as the price of ready-to-use food to treat severe wasting soared by 16 percent in recent weeks, owing to a sharp rise in the cost of raw ingredients. UNICEF said the price spike left up to 600,000 more children without access to life-saving treatment and at risk of death. Read: 1.6 million children stranded by floods in Bangladesh: UNICEF "We are now seeing the tinderbox of conditions for extreme levels of child wasting begin to catch fire," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. "Food aid is critical, but we cannot save starving children with bags of wheat. We need to reach these children now with therapeutic treatment before it is too late." Soaring food prices driven by the war in Ukraine, persistent drought due to climate change in some countries, at times combined with conflict, and the ongoing economic impact of Covid-19, are driving up food and nutrition insecurity worldwide, resulting in catastrophic levels of severe malnutrition in children under five. Read: Schools for over 168mn children globally shut for almost a full year: UNICEF Within the 15 countries highlighted as most at risk by UNICEF, the agency estimates that at least 40 million children are severely nutrition insecure, meaning they are not receiving the bare minimum diverse diet they need to grow and develop in early childhood. Also, 21 million children are severely food insecure, meaning they lack access to enough food to meet minimum food needs, leaving them at high risk of severe wasting.

As the government has made food security its top priority, there is no food shortage in the country today, Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque said Friday. He made these remarks at a program to inaugurate the 29th Annual Convention of Lions Club Bangladesh at a hotel in Dhaka. Later in the evening, the minister addressed the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of Sri Sri Madhav Gauriya Math at Narinda in Dhaka as the chief guest. Razzaque said that the people of the country are now living in peace and security and this must be maintained. The BNP, spurred on by religious fanaticism, wants to come to power through movement that would hold the people hostage. But it wouldn’t be tolerated and everyone should be aware of this, he added. Calling on all to remain vigilant and united in maintaining religious harmony, the minister said the Awami League has never allowed communalism. The BNP, on the other hand, has always fed communalism in politics and persecuted religious minorities. He said fundamentalists and opportunists are still active. "So we all need to be aware and united in maintaining religious harmony among people of all religions and castes," the agriculture minister added.

Some anti-liberation forces and so-called intellectuals want to see a famine in Bangladesh, said Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque on Friday. These people will be disappointed as there will be no famine nor any food shortage in the country, he said. The Minister said this while distributing food and clothes among the destitute ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr at Shyampur Model School premises in the capital on Friday. Also read: Work to ensure food safety round the year: Minister Awami League's Dhaka South unit organized the event. “We have all kinds of preparations to face any kind of crisis," he said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government has given utmost importance to food security, the minister added. Saying that the country has record food stock he declared, as long as Sheikh Hasina is in power, there will never be a food crisis or famine in the country. Also read: Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions The minister said the BNP-alliance also wanted to see Bangladesh's failure to deal with Covid-19. But the prime minister has handled the Corona situation very successfully. Relief and Social Welfare Secretary of Awami League Sujit Roy Nandi, Dhaka South Awami League General Secretary Humayun Kabir, Relief and Social Welfare Secretary Sheikh Mohammad Azahar also spoke at the event.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder has trashed report of food shortage in the country saying that there is enough food stock and it’s increasing. The minister said this on Thursday at an agreement signing ceremony of Barishal steel silo construction and online food stock monitoring system buying, at the ministry. Read: The food minister irked by rising rice prices He said bringing regional food offices, district offices, upazila offices and food storehouses under the online monitoring system will ensure more transparency and accountability in the activities of the food division, he said. Steel made silos are being constructed to increase the food storage by 2025, said the food minister. In these silos modern cooling systems will be used instead of pesticides keeping the food quality and nutrition intact for two years, he said. Read: Boro procurement drive must be successful at any cost: Food Minister Silos in Mymensingh, Madhupur and Ashuganj will be ready for handover by December this year while construction work of 5 more will kick off soon, said Minister  Sadhan Chandra Thirty of the 200 paddy silos construction projects across the country to ensure fair price for the farmers have already got approval. Read:Govt will ensure fair price for the farmers: Food Minister Paddies, even with 24% moisture can be taken from marginal farmers in these silos where technology will process them into quality rice, he said. The minister urged the company to deliver quality work within project term mentioning no compromise will be tolerated in this regard.

Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque has urged the developed nations to increase investment in developing and least developed countries and boost assistance to ensure global food security.

Stressing the importance of ensuring food security for all, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the people of Bangladesh must not suffer from food scarcity as a fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Putting emphasis on keeping up Bangladesh’s progress in the agriculture sector, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said the government has been providing all sorts of assistance for ensuring food security amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged all concerned to produce and preserve foodgrains in the country mentioning that the world might face famine in the coming days as coronavirus will create a shortage of food.