By William Madouk<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Between 7,000 and 21,000 people are possibly dying each day due to conflict-related hunger globally, this is according to a new Oxfam report published on World Food Day.<\/strong><\/p>\n The report dubbed \u2018Food Wars\u2019 conducted in 54 countries affected by conflict including South Sudan, and found that they account for almost 281.6 million people facing acute hunger at present.<\/p>\n Conflict has also been one of the main causes of forced displacement in conflict-affected countries, which has globally reached a record level today of more than 117 million people.<\/p>\n The report says, conflict is not only a primary driver of hunger but that warring parties are also actively weaponizing food itself by deliberately targeting food, water and energy infrastructure and by blocking food aid.<\/p>\n Emily Farr, Oxfam\u2019s Food and Economic Security Lead, said as conflict rages, hunger has become a lethal weapon wielded by warring parties against international laws, causing an alarming rise in human deaths and suffering.<\/p>\n She cited that civilians continue to be subjected to such slow death in the 21st century, is a collective failure.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s food crises are largely manufactured. Nearly half a million people in Gaza \u2013 where 83% of food aid needed is currently not reaching them,\u201d said Farr.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd 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,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The report also shows that the majority of the countries studied (34 out of 54) are rich in natural resources, relying heavily on exporting raw products.<\/p>\n For instance, 95% of Sudan\u2019s export earnings come from gold and livestock, 87% of South Sudan\u2019s come from petroleum products, and nearly 70% of Burundi\u2019s come from coffee.<\/p>\n In Central America, meanwhile, mining operations have led to violent conflicts, uprooting people from their homes as they no longer become able to live in degraded and polluted environments.<\/p>\n Oxfam argues that currently peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction efforts are too often based on encouraging more foreign investment and export-related economies.<\/p>\n However, this focus on economic liberalization can instead create more inequality, suffering and the potential for conflict to resume.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is no coincidence that the lethal combination of war, displacement and hunger has often occurred in countries rich in natural resources. The exploitation of these raw commodities often means more violence, inequality, instability, and renewed conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cToo often, large-scale private investment\u2014both foreign and domestic \u2014has also added to political and economic instabilities in these countries, where investors seize control over land and water resources forcing people out of their homes,\u201d said Farr.<\/p>\n Conflict often compounds other factors like climate shocks, economic instability and inequalities to devastate people\u2019s livelihoods.<\/p>\n Climate shocks like droughts and floods, coupled with the surge in global food prices associated with pandemic shut-downs and additional food-chain disruptions connected to the Russia-Ukraine war, have fueled the hunger crises in East and Southern Africa.<\/p>\n Many of those fleeing are women and children.<\/p>\n Aisha Ibrahim, age 37, told Oxfam that she had to walk four days with her four children, leaving their home in Sudan for Joda, across the border in South Sudan.<\/p>\n She left her husband behind to protect their home. \u201cI used to live in a proper home. I could never imagine myself in this situation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The international community\u2019s pledge of \u201czero hunger\u201d by 2030 remains out of touch. Oxfam says that states and institutions globally, including the UN Security Council, must hold to account those committing \u201cstarvation crimes\u201d under international law.<\/p>\n To break the vicious cycle of food insecurity and conflict, Farr stated that: \u201cglobal leaders must tackle head-on the conditions that breed conflict: the colonial legacies, injustices, human rights violations, and inequalities \u2013 rather than offering quick band-aid solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n She highlighted that Peace efforts must be coupled with investment in social protection, and social cohesion building, adding that \u201ceconomic solutions must prioritize fair trade and sustainable food systems.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By William Madouk Between 7,000 and 21,000 people are possibly dying each day due to conflict-related hunger globally, this is according to a new Oxfam report published on World Food Day. The report dubbed \u2018Food Wars\u2019 conducted in 54 countries affected by conflict including South Sudan, and found that[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Malnourish-child-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29717,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29715\/revisions\/29717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}