A wave of conflict-driven hunger is sweeping from war-torn Sudan to besieged Gaza, the United Nations has warned. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the growing food crisis is fuelling instability and must not be used as a weapon of war.
“Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace,” he declared in a video address to the UN Food Systems Summit in Addis Ababa. The warning comes amid mounting desperation in Gaza, where the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, reports a sharp rise in hunger-related deaths.
“More children died today of hunger,” the agency said on Monday, calling for immediate access to deliver life-saving aid. Thousands of aid trucks packed with food, medicine and hygiene supplies are stalled in Jordan and Egypt, awaiting Israeli clearance to enter Gaza.
UNRWA said a minimum of 500 to 600 trucks must reach the enclave each day to stave off mass starvation. “Opening all the crossings and flooding Gaza with assistance is the only way to avert further deepening of starvation,” the agency stressed.
Over 100 people have already starved to death in Gaza, with local health officials recording more than 40 malnutrition-related deaths this month alone. As famine tightens its grip from Sudan’s battlefields to Gaza’s ruins, the UN urges urgent global action to break the deadly siege of hunger.
