The Global Battle Against Hunger

October 21st, 2025
Rebecca Gehlmann

The fragile ceasefire established between Israel and Hamas is far from the end of a devastating conflict. Instead the massive humanitarian efforts that will be needed to restore Gaza to liveable conditions have only just begun. The first hurdle? Ensuring access to food. Aid trucks from the United Nations have poured into the strip in the hundreds following the ceasefire, yet this may still not be enough. Famine was confirmed in the region in August, affecting thousands of children who will require intensive care. Additionally, humanitarian aid is not consistently flowing to the places that need it the most. On Sunday, aid was briefly halted following the death of two Israeli soldiers. It’s clear that fighting famine will be an uphill battle.

However, Gaza is not the only flash-point for the global battle against starvation, especially in poverty-stricken or conflict-ridden areas. Despite lofty promises from organizations like the United Nations, access to the foremost human right has been declining. Earlier this year, UN data found that acute food insecurity and food childhood malnutrition increased again for the sixth consecutive year. Much of these increases can be attributed to conflict-torn areas in Africa and West Asia.

In Africa, the battleground for this global fight is Sudan, which has been the site of possibly the world’s worst humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of civil war in 2023. In this conflict, hunger is used as a weapon. Stories of starving children and their helpless mothers in the besieged city of el-Fasher briefly gripped the Western media, yet little real global awareness has materialized from it. Today, the 250,000 remaining inhabitants of the city huddle in the city center amidst heavy artillery and drone attacks on the brink of starvation. For over 550 days, the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group besieging the city, have refused to allow any humanitarian aid into el-Fasher.

With such devastating tales of destruction, the question remains of whether the international community is doing enough to intervene against the weaponization of hunger. Writing in Foreign Affairs, the director of the World Peace Foundation believes that the international community isn’t only not doing enough to end conflict-driven famines, but actively normalizing this bioweapon. He writes that since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, where leaders refrained from attacking Putin’s use of starvation techniques during the 85-day siege of Mariupol to ensure the passing of the Black Sea Grain Initiatives, the international community has turned a blind eye to the resurgence of famine as a war tactic, thus paving the way for the proliferation of this practice.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. The latest global trend has become isolationism, which means that wealthy countries are turning inward and reducing the outflow of foreign aid necessary to combat both natural and man-made famine. Aid cuts like those by the United States, UK, Germany and Canada are perpetuating this crisis. In fact, a report released by the United Nations warns that 13.7 million people are facing severe hunger due to global aid cuts. Organizations like the United Nations World Food Programme are seeing projected budget cuts of over 40%, hampering their abilities to provide aid in conflict zones and beyond.