Barely anyone? With all respect Nancy, you are extremely misinformed. Alcohol withdrawal, dependent of course upon severity, like that from all sedative/hypnotics, is extremely harmful, if not lethal. I can say with confidence - of course, I'm open to correction - that more people die as a result of alcohol abuse/withdrawal than from any other substance, if we exclude overdose situations. Hell, even if we didn't, alcohol would still probably be the leader of the pack. Globally, I'm sure it is.
I'm sure that many, many people die on a regular basis. Bear in mind, that unlike pharmaceuticals or hard drugs, alcohol is practically universally consumed. Every culture has or has had at one point it's own style of alcoholic beverage(s) and it's been this way since before recorded history. You can even manufacture alcohol in a prison/jail cell with only the materials provided to you in general day-to-day operations. Seeing that most of the world lacks the standard of medical care which many of us enjoy in the Western world, for instance, detoxification protocol for alcohol/sedative-hypnotic withdrawal, people with severe drinking problems in these "less-developed" areas are shit out of luck and their survival is left up to God.
So, given all of these variables, there is no possible way to estimate how many people die from alcohol withdrawal each year globally. There are civilizations that simply do not keep accurate, or even any statistics related to alcohol abuse or consumption. If you're seeking information with which to have friendly "debates" with people regarding the dangers or virtue of drug use or prohibition, than you can rest assured that alcohol is one of the very worst substances one can put into their body, if not the worst (my belief, besides maybe methamphetamine). I've seen more harm done socially and medically by alcohol by far than any other substance.
The funniest part about alcohol abuse, is that when I try to explain how dangerous it is ("you are better off medically as a heroin addict" etc.), even intelligent, supposedly well-informed folks, not only disagree, they laugh in your face and assume that my "mind has been warped or otherwise destroyed by use of heroin". Why would it be legal if it were so harmful? People trust our government entirely too much. Bernie Sanders for president.