On World Food Day: Food and Hunger as Weapons of War

A priest once told me about how he'd asked a group of children in conflict-affected Colombia: "What do you do when you're hungry?" Thinking I was clever, I replied to the priest that the children must have said they would climb a tree and pick mangoes -- because to think the children had just said "eat" would make the priest's story too simple . . .

"No," he said, "they told me that when they're hungry, they tighten their belts."

On World Food Day (16 Oct), I am reminded of this story. It is a sad truth that around the world 850 million people -- 400 million of them children -- will not have enough food to eat today, and 24,000 of them will die of hunger.

Hunger is a frequent fallout of war, armed conflict, displacement, and natural disaster. The 2006 Global Hunger Index shows this clearly. Of the ten countries that ranked worst on measurements of child mortality and undernourishment, all have been affected directly or indirectly by war.

In regions that have experienced long-lasting violent conflict, people's livelihoods almost always suffer severe damage. Warfare destroys markets, crops, land, and livestock.

Armed conflict also exacerbates hunger in other, sinister ways. Combatants use food and hunger as weapons of war by cutting off supply routes, starving opposing populations into submission, and hijacking food aid intended for civilians.

One severe case in point is the Sudanese province of Darfur. Since 2003, brutal fighting between government militia and rebels has displaced over 2 million people, separating civilians from their fields and livestock and drastically reducing annual crops yields by as much as 80 percent in a land that normally has sufficient rainfall and good harvests. Today, 3.5 million people in Darfur are unable to feed themselves. This, in addition to confronting the slow genocide that has already murdered at least 400,000 innocent civilians.

So on World Food Day, I remember the children in war-torn Colombia. They were hungry because combatants blockaded their towns and there was not enough food. Today, those children will be hungry, and they will tighten their belts -- along with 400 million other children around the world. And unless we continue to support efforts to end war, poverty, and hunger, they will be hungry again tomorrow.