“The mandate of this Council is the maintenance of international peace and security, and there can be neither peace where people starve, nor security where hunger fuels conflict,” She said.
A recent UN report warned that the world’s most extreme food crises are primarily caused by armed conflict and violence, including famines in Gaza and Sudan – this is the first time such a food emergency has been declared in a single year.
Other areas of concern include Haiti, Yemen, the Sahel region of Africa and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Investing to end hunger
Ms. Mohammed highlighted 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,” she added. “Through deliberate starvation tactics, as we see too often, including recently in Gaza. But also by the systematic destruction of agricultural systems.”
Meanwhile, investments in military spending continue, 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 resolve the crisis, said Joyce Msuya of the UN aid coordination office: OCHA.
“When humanitarian access is denied, hunger and malnutrition increase – often with devastating consequences for civilians,” she said.
The warring parties “must allow the rapid and unhindered passage of impartial humanitarian assistance” and ensure that aid workers are free to carry out their operations.
“One month after the ceasefire began in Gaza, the UN and its partners are seizing every opportunity to save lives,” she reported. “But access is still limited by limits at border crossings, delays in aid convoys and bureaucratic hurdles 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 of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian challenge but a matter of global peace and security, he said.
“When families can’t afford to eat, social contracts weaken. When farmers lose their crops to droughts or floods, conflicts or wars, local markets collapse and tensions flare,” he told ambassadors.
“When international food prices rise or price volatility becomes excessive, protests erupt in cities from Port-au-Prince to Cairo, and rigorous empirical research confirms: rising global food prices and excessive volatility are directly associated with more social unrestwith stronger effects in poorer countries and in urban areas.
A high cost
The African Union (AU) Special Envoy 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 suffers from food insecurity, twice the global average. By the end of the decade, Africa will be home to more than half of the world’s hungry people.
War-torn Sudan is experiencing one of the most serious food crises, with 25.6 million people experiencing acute food insecurity, including 800,000 facing famine. 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 measured only in numbers. It is felt in shattered lives, uprooted communities and lost futures.“, he said.
“A strategic and existential threat”
The UN Deputy Secretary-General stressed that “the link between hunger and conflict constitutes a strategic and existential threat, and this Council must treat it as such.”
She stressed the need for action on four fronts.
“First, humanitarian access must be seamless, ceasefires must be respected and international humanitarian law must be respected,” Ms. Mohammed said.
She highlighted 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,” she said.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
