Hunger should never be used “as a weapon of war,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today, referring in particular to the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Sudan.

“The fighting continues to increase hunger in Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere. Hunger fuels instability and threatens peace. We should never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” Guterres stressed in his speech, via video link, at the UN Food Systems Summit being held in Ethiopia.

Yesterday, Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the malnutrition rate in the Gaza Strip is reaching “alarming levels”, with “peak deaths in July”.

Of the 74 deaths due to malnutrition recorded in the Palestinian enclave since the beginning of the year, 63 were recorded in July, including 24 children under 5 years old, one child over 5 years old and 38 adults, according to the WHO.

Israel has been besieging Gaza since the start of its war against Hamas on October 7, 2023, and in early March imposed a strict blockade on the Palestinian enclave, banning all aid from entering before easing it in late May.

Meanwhile, Sudan has been mired since April 2023 in a violent civil war between the army — which controls the center, north and east of the country — and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, who control nearly all of Darfur province in the west.

The conflict has killed thousands of people and forced 14 million to flee their homes and be displaced within and outside the country, causing “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis,” according to the UN.