Conflict-related food insecurity: Fuels displacement and violence - Deputy UN Chief

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Published Jan 11, 2026

UN Deputy Secretary-General said, “Food itself has become a weapon.”

Addressing the Security Council Amina J. Mohammed said, “Armed conflict drives acute food insecurity in 14 of 16 hunger hotspots worldwide. Last year, 295 million people faced acute hunger - 14 million more than the year before. The number of people experiencing catastrophic hunger have more than doubled to 1.9 million.”

She also said, “This is the new arithmetic of conflict: when food systems are attacked, weaponized, the impact is global. Food itself has become a weapon. Through deliberate starvation tactics, which we are seeing all too often, including recently in Gaza. But also, through the systematic destruction of agricultural systems.”

She highlighted, “And in a spiral of death, we continue to invest in military expenditure rather than putting and end of hunger. The world’s total military expenditure over the past decade, estimated at $21.9 trillion, yet ending hunger by 2030 costs much less - $93 billion per year.”

She stressed, “We cannot and must not accept these examples as the new normal. The hunger-conflict nexus is a strategic and existential threat, and this Council must treat it as such.”