'Starvation Has Become a Lethal Weapon': Up to 21,000 Dying Daily From War-Fueled Hunger

An Oxfam report published Wednesday estimates that war-fueled hunger is likely killing as many as 21,000 people per day in dozens of countries as parties to global conflicts weaponize starvation against children and other vulnerable people in Gaza, Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and elsewhere.

Food Wars, published to mark World Food Day, finds that nearly 278 million people across 54 war-torn countries faced crisis-level hunger last year. That population accounts for 99% of the people facing crisis-level hunger worldwide.

War, according to the new report, was a "major cause of food insecurity" in each of the 54 countries examined, "although in some of them, weather extremes or economic shocks may have been the principal driver."

"As conflict rages around the world, starvation has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws, causing an alarming rise in human deaths and suffering," said Emily Farr, Oxfam's food and economic security lead. "That civilians continue to be subjected to such slow death in the 21st Century is a collective failure."

Farr added that "today's food crises are largely manufactured," noting that "nearly half a million people in Gaza—where 83% of food aid needed is currently not reaching them—and over three-quarters of a million in Sudan are currently starving as the deadly impact of wars on food will likely be felt for generations."

Oxfam, other humanitarian groups, and United Nations experts have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of warfare against Gaza's population, much of which is facing famine conditions as the U.S.-armed Israeli military continues to obstruct the flow of lifesaving aid and attack food distribution centers.

On Tuesday, Oxfam warned that northern Gaza "is being erased" and "civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents" by Israeli forces.

"This is not an evacuation—this is forced displacement under gunfire," Oxfam said.

Across the globe, the number of people forcibly displaced by conflict reached a record 117.3 million last year, Oxfam's new report notes, "with 77% of them in countries affected by hunger crises."

Oxfam observed that "war-displacement-hunger crises occur in countries that continue to rely heavily on primary product exports," highlighting the need for systemic changes to global food and economic systems in addition to more immediate diplomatic efforts to end military conflicts.

"Paradoxically, peacebuilding efforts have often assumed that economic liberalization offers the best or only pathway to sustainable peace," the report states. "Yet struggle for control over fungible primary commodities can fund more violence, increased inequality, continued instability, and the risk of renewed conflict."

"Large-scale private investment—whether foreign or domestic in origin—adds to political economic instabilities where investors seize control over land and water resources and displace local peoples," the report continues. "Markets for high-value primary commodities need to be more carefully vetted and regulated, so they do not fund and fuel conflict."

Oxfam's report calls on governments to "make human rights, including the right to food, central to food system planning and transformation" and to "strengthen international accountability mechanisms to combat impunity and deter the use of starvation as a weapon of war," among other recommendations.

"To break the vicious cycle of food insecurity and conflict, global leaders must tackle head-on the conditions that breed conflict: the colonial legacies, injustices, human rights violations, and inequalities—rather than offering quick band-aid solutions," Farr said Wednesday.

"We cannot end conflict by simply injecting foreign investments in conflict-torn countries, without uprooting the deep inequalities, generational grievances, and human rights violations that fuel those conflicts," Farr added. "Peace efforts must be coupled with investment in social protection, and social cohesion building. Economic solutions must prioritize fair trade and sustainable food systems."