Global conflicts driving up to 21,000 deaths daily from hunger: Report

Oxfam finds most food crises are ‘largely manufactured’ in new report published on World Food Day.

Hunger caused by conflicts around the world has reached record high levels, a new report by Oxfam has found, which accuses warring parties of weaponising food and blocking aid.

Between 7,000 to as many as 21,000 people are likely dying each day from hunger in countries affected by conflict, according to the report, published by the United Kingdom-based charity on World Food Day on Wednesday.

Titled Food Wars, it examined 54 countries experiencing conflict, revealing that they account for nearly all of the 281.6 million people facing acute hunger today. Conflict has also been a major driver of forced displacement in these countries, which has now reached a record 117 million people.

Oxfam emphasised that conflict not only fuels hunger, but that warring parties are actively using food as a weapon by targeting food, water and energy infrastructure, as well as blocking food aid.

In September, three humanitarian agencies warned of “a starvation crisis of historic proportions” amid Sudan’s civil war, while the proportion of households affected by high levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza has been the largest ever recorded globally since the end of last year.