UN deputy chief warns hunger and war fuel global crises

Lunch is served at a school in Kindamba, DR Congo.

For millions of people worldwide caught in conflict, “war and hunger are often two faces of the same crisis,” UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the Security Council on Monday, as it met to examine how food insecurity fuels fighting.

“This Council's mandate is maintenance of international peace and security, and there can be neither peace where people are starving, nor security where hunger drives conflict,” she said.

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 hunger emergency has been declared in a single year. Haiti, Yemen, the Sahel region in Africa, and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are among other areas of concern.

Invest in ending hunger

Ms. Mohammed noted that in an interconnected world, the cycle of hunger and conflict affects other regions. The war in Ukraine, for example, disrupted grain imports, with consequences felt across several continents.

“Food itself has become a weapon,” she 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 expenditure continues, estimated at nearly $22 trillion over the past decade, whereas “ending hunger by 2030 costs much less – $93 billion per year.” Climate change also accelerates conflict-related hunger.

Humanitarian access vital

Humanitarian action is 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 rise – often with devastating consequences for civilians,” she said. Warring parties “must allow the rapid and unimpeded passage of impartial humanitarian relief” and ensure aid workers can carry out their operations.

“One month into the ceasefire in Gaza, the UN and our partners are seizing every opening to save lives. But access is still restricted by limits at border crossings, delays to aid convoys, and bureaucratic impediments that slow the entry of vital supplies – and, in some cases, staff,” she added.

Rising food prices

Nearly 673 million people globally still go to bed hungry, according to Máximo Torero, chief economist with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Food insecurity is no longer just a humanitarian challenge but a matter of global peace and security.

“When families cannot afford to eat, social contracts weaken. When farmers lose their crops to droughts, floods, or conflict, local markets falter and tensions flare,” he said. “Higher global food prices and excessive volatility are directly associated with more social unrest, especially in poorer countries and urban settings.”

A high cost

Africa is “the epicentre of global hunger,” said AU Special Envoy Dr. Ibrahim A. Miyaki. Some 20.4% of Africa’s population is food insecure – twice the global average. By 2030, over half of all hungry people will live in Africa.

War-torn Sudan faces one of the gravest 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 only counted in numbers. It is felt in broken lives, uprooted communities, and lost futures,” he said.

A strategic and existential threat’

The UN Deputy Secretary-General highlighted that “the hunger-conflict nexus is a strategic and existential threat, and this Council must treat it as such.” She called for action on four fronts:

Ensure humanitarian access, uphold ceasefires, and enforce international humanitarian law.

Build resilient food systems.

Promote stronger climate action.

Work towards 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 casualties of conflict,” she concluded.