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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 8 -- Around 239 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, a senior official of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Saturday. "239 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from hunger and malnutrition...The only way we can bring it to zero is through peace and security. Let us silence the guns by working hand in hand for peace and development." said Marina Helena Semedo, Deputy Director General of FAO, on the sidelines of the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Semedo said the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have put in several key targets including dramatically reducing the high number of sub-Saharan Africans suffering from poverty, hunger and malnutrition. "SDG aims at accelerating progress towards eradicating poverty as well as ending hunger and malnutrition by tapping into the under-supported potential of agriculture to boost individual countries efforts to achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development," she said. The Deputy Director General FAO also emphasized the UN body is currently implementing various initiatives to raise the incomes of the rural poor. "In this context FAO's hand in hand initiative identifies the best opportunities to raise incomes of the rural poor through agricultural transformation". "The success of the initiative hinges on innovation and investment to fast-track agro-food transformation and sustainable rural development especially in countries where national capacities and international support are limited or where the population is vulnerable to natural disaster or conflict," said Semedo. | 
