New York, UN Headquarter, numerous non-governmental organizations are calling on world leaders to take decisive action to end the spiraling global hunger crisis. 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019. One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds around the world. Famine is once more imminent: 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries. The global hunger crisis has been fuelled by a deadly mix of poverty, social injustice, gender inequality, conflict, climate change, and economic shocks.
On May 24th, 2018, the UNSC unanimously passed Resolution 2417 to condemn the use of food insecurity, starvation and the “threat of famine” as a tactic of war. From that day on, the situation did not change and parties in conflict kept on not complying with international humanitarian law obligations destroying vital sites in the midst of conflicts (as in the case of war in Ukraine).
Nowadays after the destructive effects of COVID-19 pandemic, the climate shocks and the war between Russia and Ukraine, food prices, costs of living and in general insecurity attached to the food system reached historical peaks. For this reason, now more than ever the accent should be put on this aspect in order to foster cooperation and humanitarian assistance to better respond and prevent current and future crises, stresses the WFP together with many NGOs in an open letter which expresses outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels and recommendations for action.
To read more, please visit:
- https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/hunger-and-war
- https://www.wfp.org/publications/war-ukraine-drives-global-food-crisis
- https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-hunger-ukraine-effect-conflict-and-hunger-june-2022
- https://www.wfpusa.org/articles/role-of-hunger-in-politics-and-war/
by Viola Rubeca
