Hunger is a brutal weapon – wars in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza significantly undermine global food security

Food should not be used as a tool of war, yet conflicts affect people’s access to sufficient and nutritious food. In recent years, alongside local challenges, the world has witnessed a unique phenomenon: the war in Ukraine, now in its third year, has affected food security worldwide.

Text: Ulriikka Myöhänen 

Critical food aid lifelines into northern Gaza severed
Starvation in war-hit Sudan ‘almost everywhere’.
Russian missiles hit two grain ships in the Black Sea.

THESE HEADS ARE EXCERPTS from the international media and UN agencies in September-October 2024. A quick glance at the news will tell you a few important things:

Firstly, war always affects the food supply of ordinary people. Secondly, even in today’s wars, the control of food and its associated resources is the weapon which affects civilians the most.

The actions behind the headlines – such as bombing, destruction of farmland and water resources, and sabotage of food shipments – are horrific acts not only from the perspective of civilians struggling in the midst of conflicts, but also because they strongly undermine the international rules-based order.

International humanitarian law is a set of rules that seeks to limit the effects of armed conflict. It clearly states that starvation of civilians is absolutely prohibited as a method of warfare. It is also forbidden to attack objects that are essential to the survival of the civilian population. These may include food, grain fields, crops, livestock, water supplies and irrigation systems.

The rules of war are constantly being violated. In 2024, we still live in a world where children are starving to death, missiles and rockets are destroying food supplies, and food aid is not reaching civilians living in the midst of devastating conflict.

In developing regions, wars are often fought in areas that already suffer from a lack of adequate food and livelihoods, such as limited pasture and cropland. Food and disputes over food can therefore be both a tool of warfare and a cause of conflict.

Food is a human right

THE RIGHT TO FOOD is a right of every human being.

According to the World Food Summit held in 1996, food security is achieved when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthy life.”

There are four main dimensions to food security. Food must be available: it must grow in fields and be stored. To achieve food security, people must also have access to food. In other words, they must be able to buy or produce food for themselves and their families.

In addition to being available, food must be nutritious and varied so that people’s energy and nutrient needs are met. The fourth dimension is the stability or permanence of food security. Good quality and nutritious food must be available from day to day and people must have access to it for an individual to be considered food secure. Political instability, extreme weather conditions, rising prices and unemployment can all affect stability around food security.

Up to a third of the world’s food ends up as waste

TODAY, FOOD SECURITY is not achieved for everyone, even to the extent that food is available at all. According to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one in 11 people in the world and one in five on the African continent will go hungry in 2023 – this despite the fact that the world produces more food than people can eat.

It is estimated that at least a fifth or even a third of the food produced goes to waste. In rich countries, too much food is bought and then left uneaten. In the poorest countries, food is wasted already at harvest time due to inadequate storage facilities and markets.

The past few years have been exceptional in terms of the deterioration of global food security. This is due to the Covid pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

Coronavirus began spreading around the world from the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The viral disease, which became a pandemic in the spring of 2020, closed borders and significantly limited people’s interactions and daily life.

The pandemic had an impact on nutrition, food security and food systems, i.e. the whole that consists of food production, processing, distribution and consumption.

Covid also had a significant impact on food chains, i.e. how raw materials end up on people’s tables through processing, handling, distribution and sale. The effects were global due to the lockdowns and restrictions during the pandemic and the sickening of those working in the sector.

Additionally, the pandemic also forced people to change their eating habits, as informal markets that often sold cheap vegetables to families, especially in developing countries, were closed due to restrictions on gatherings. Social programs that helped the poor could no longer provide food assistance in the same way as before.

Many lost their livelihoods, which meant that families had less money to buy food. At the same time, as the pandemic progressed, food prices rose significantly.

Kuvituskuvassa käsi pitelee ilmassa rahtilaivaa. A hand is holding a cargo ship in the air.
Illustration: Julia Tavast

In Ukraine, the war has turned fields into minefields

In 2022, the world was hit by a new global crisis, this time starting on the European continent. Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has proven how interconnected the world we live in is.

Ukraine is a major European breadbasket, with agricultural products reaching tables around the world in recent years. The country is located on the Black Sea, through which significant amounts of grain, cooking oil and fertilizers are transported to the world.

When the war began, Russian warships in the Black Sea blockaded Ukrainian ports, thus closing trade routes. Energy and fuel prices rose. Food exports from Ukraine to the world suffered significantly before transport across the Black Sea was restored, at least partially, and alternative routes were found for Ukrainian agricultural products through European countries.

Ukrainians have lost their fertile farmland to invading forces, and the fields have become minefields. The fields themselves and the crops they grow have been completely destroyed in some places. Those who still farm are struggling to grow crops in the midst of war. There is a shortage of electricity due to ongoing attacks on energy infrastructure.

Transporting food from farms to international consumers has become significantly more difficult due to closed trade routes, ongoing security threats, and increased transportation costs.

The war in Ukraine and its impact on food security have been felt across the world, from Central America to the Middle East and Asia. The war caused global food prices to reach record highs in March 2022, but have since fallen to pre-pandemic levels.

The Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have been visible on family dinner tables around the world. But think about this: many people in the developed world buy a bag of highly processed bread from a store, the price of which consists of the shares received by the producer, the food industry and the store, as well as VAT. The share of raw materials – and the price change that has occurred due to the global market – is ultimately just a small everyday expense in our breakfast rolls.

In poorer countries, instead of buying ready-made rolls, people buy a big bag of raw materials, grain, from which they grind flour at home, for example, for a month’s needs. The price of wheat on the world market is reflected more painfully in the monthly expenses of a low-income family and also in the price of breakfast bread than in richer families.

Attacks on grain ships and food production continue in Ukraine

Despite the rules of war, Russia has used food as a weapon of war in Ukraine repeatedly, forcefully, and for a long time.

The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost three years, and yet attacks on grain ships, grain warehouses and food production continue. Although markets have managed to at least partially compensate for the lack of Ukrainian products on world markets, the war is already having, and will continue to have, long-term effects on food security.

The effects have already hit those who were already most hungry. As prices have risen, organizations have also had fewer food aid resources at their disposal. This means that fewer and fewer families dependent on food aid in crises around the world are getting enough food on their plates.

FAO predicts that up to 600 million people will be chronically malnourished in 2030. If the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine had not happened, there would be up to 119 million fewer people undernourished in 2030. The war in Ukraine alone affects the forecast by 23 million people. Chronic malnutrition is hitting Africa hard, where people are already living in famine.

In the illustration, a child is sitting at a large plate with a spoon in their hand. On the plate are guns and bullets.

Kuvituskuvassa lapsi istuu ison lautasen äärellä lusikka kädessä. Lautasella on aseita ja luoteja.
Illustration: Julia Tavast

Hunger is being used as a weapon against civilians in Gaza and Sudan

THE LAST few years have brought turbulence to the big picture of food security, but there are also many regional and local crises in the world today that are significantly undermining food security.

Of all of them, the most difficult has received the least attention. More than half of Sudan’s population – 25 million people – will be acutely food insecure when the country enters civil war in 2023.

A famine has already been declared in the North Darfur region, which is also home to a camp for 500 000 internally displaced people. International organisations agree that hunger is currently the main cause of suffering among Sudanese civilians.

The warring factions in Sudan are also using hunger as a weapon of war. According to reports, the conflict parties are severely destabilising food systems, causing mass displacement and systematically destroying livelihoods. The parties are also blocking food aid from reaching the opposing territories.

The situation is also very serious in Gaza, where civilians are not getting enough food due to continuous airstrikes. Israel is also severely restricting the adequate access of food aid to Gaza.

There are also reports that food aid reaching the Gaza Strip has been looted. Israel blames the looting on Hamas, the Islamist extremist organization that controls Gaza. Organising food aid is currently difficult, also because Gaza is under constant bombardment and evacuation orders, and it is not possible to organize food storage and distribution safely.

It has long been known that Gaza is in a food security emergency that could soon turn into an outright famine. In October 2024, three-quarters of the population of the Gaza Strip is completely dependent on food aid, the limited farmland has been destroyed by bombing, and food supplies on the market are scarce and, as a result, very expensive.

How will food security be restored?

THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME estimates that there are now as many as 71 countries facing acute hunger. The situation is most serious in Sudan and Gaza, but hunger is also seen in countries such as South Sudan and Mali. The hunger crisis has also been prolonged in Somalia, which first suffered from a historically long drought and then from rains that have caused devastating floods in the country.

In addition to conflicts and economic shocks, climate change is a significant factor increasing food insecurity. Conflicts, lack of livelihoods and climate change, in turn, force people to leave their homes. The cycle repeats, as displacement also significantly increases human food insecurity.

So what can be done to ensure that everyone has bread on their plate in the future? The most informed guesses emphasise cooperation; in which governments, financial institutions, the private sector, and sectors responsible for humanitarian work and development cooperation improve food security.

The importance of politics and diplomacy is key in order to end wars that have a devastating impact on the lives of civilians. The various parties must commit to complying with international humanitarian law, which prohibits attacks on food and civilians.

And finally, as the dust settles on the battlefields, it will be time to look to the future and think about how people will be able to return to their farms to produce food and earn a living.

The article uses as sources numerous press releases and web articles from the World Food Programme and OHCHR, the FAO’s The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2024 report, regional IPC reports on food security and the Impacts of COVID-19 on food security and nutrition report. In addition, Kaisa Karttun, a working life professor at the University of Helsinki who specialises in food security, was interviewed for the article.