The result for 1965 was 14 million, while for 1979 the number had declined to 11 million. What they find throughout the Third World is that the problems of poverty and hunger often date back hundreds of years to some conquest - by colonial forces or otherwise. The victors became the ruling class and the landholders, pushing the vast majority either on to poor ground or into being landless laborers. Taxes, rentals, and the legal system were all structured to make sure that the poor stayed poor. The same patterns continue today.
Additional support is provided by the evidence in the above figure, which speaks for itself.
If their estimates are correct, our estimates may even be too low. Some comparisons will help to put these figures in perspective. While it is heartening to see this improvement, the number of deaths is staggeringly large, dwarfing any other form of violence other than nuclear war. Every 4 days, it is the equivalent of another Hiroshima. Perhaps the most hopeful aspect of this whole tragic situation is that essentially everyone in the present system has become a loser.