A recent UN report warned that the world’s most extreme food crises are driven primarily by armed conflict and violence, including famines in Gaza and Sudan (the first time such a famine emergency has been declared in a single year).
Haiti, Yemen, the African Sahel region and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are among other areas of concern.
Invest to end hunger
Ms. Mohammed noted that in an interconnected world, the cycle of hunger and conflict impacts other regions.
For example, the war in Ukraine disrupted grain imports, with consequences felt on several continents.
“Food itself has become a weapon,” he added. “Through deliberate starvation tactics, which we are seeing all too often, including recently in Gaza. But also through the systematic destruction of agricultural systems..”
Meanwhile, investment in military spending continues, estimated at nearly $22 trillion over the past decade, while “ending hunger by 2030 costs much less: $93 billion per year.”
At the same time, climate change is accelerating conflict-related hunger.
Humanitarian access is vital
Humanitarian action is also essential to prevent and address the crisis, said Joyce Msuya of the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.
“When humanitarian access is denied, hunger and malnutrition increases, often with devastating consequences for civilians,” he said.
Parties to the conflict “must allow the rapid and unhindered passage of impartial humanitarian aid” and ensure that humanitarian workers are free to carry out their operations.
“A month after the ceasefire in Gaza, the UN and our partners are taking advantage of every opportunity to save lives,” he reported. “But access is still restricted by limitations at border crossings, delays in aid convoys and bureaucratic impediments that slow the entry of vital supplies and, in some cases, personnel.”
Rising food prices
Today, nearly 673 million people around the world still go to bed hungry, according to Máximo Torero, chief economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian challenge but an issue of global peace and security, he said.
“When families cannot afford to eat, social contracts weaken. When farmers lose their crops due to drought or floods, conflict or war, local markets falter and tensions rise,” he told the ambassadors.
“When international food prices rise or price volatility becomes excessive, protests break out in cities from Port-au-Prince to Cairo, and rigorous empirical research confirms this: Higher global food prices and excessive volatility are directly associated with more social unrest events.with stronger effects in poorer countries and urban environments.”
A high cost
The Special Envoy of the African Union (AU) for Food Systems highlighted the situation on the continent: “the epicenter of global hunger.”
Dr. Ibrahim A. Miyaki said 20.4 percent of the population is food insecure, double the global average. By the end of the decade, Africa will be home to more than half of all the hungry people on the planet.
War-torn Sudan has one of its most serious food emergencies, with 25.6 million people acutely food insecure, including 800,000 in famine conditions. Violence in eastern DRC has destroyed farms, displaced millions and left more than 25 million people hungry.
“The cost of hunger in Africa is not counted only in numbers. It is felt in broken lives, uprooted communities and lost futures.“, said.
‘A strategic and existential threat’
The UN Deputy Secretary-General noted that “the nexus between hunger and conflict is a strategic and existential threat, and this Council must treat it as such.”
He highlighted the need to act on four fronts.
“First and foremost, humanitarian access must flow, ceasefires must be maintained and international humanitarian law must be respected,” said Ms. Mohammed.
He emphasized the need to build resilient food systems and promote stronger climate action, before concluding with a call for peace, “the only sustainable solution.”
“Let us choose to build a future where food is never again used as a weapon, where no child goes hungry because of war, and where food systems become engines of peace, resilience and hope rather than victims of conflict,” he said.