This time, our five questions go to Lukas Wank, Managing Director of AG Globale Verantwortung. We spoke to the development cooperation and humanitarian aid expert about the starvation of civilians as an act of war and what options the international community has to prevent such war crimes.
Mr. Wank, in 2018, the UN declared the starvation of civilians a war crime in Resolution 2417 – without much effect, because it seems that the use of this war tactic is increasing?
It is clear that hunger as a weapon of war is not a new practice in historical terms. However, it is difficult to assess whether the intention of warring parties to starve the civilian population in conflict zones is increasing. However, it is unacceptable without exception if civilians are not evacuated or adequately supplied. The dramatic increase in civilian casualties in 2023 underlines this trend. It is also certain that the 64 per cent increase in conflicts that the organization ACLED ( Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) since 2020 has fueled hunger. At the same time, the climate crisis, health and debt crises, rising poverty and inequality are worsening the living conditions of people in poor and fragile countries and making humanitarian operations more difficult.
When do we speak of hunger as a weapon of war and can it always be clearly determined whether hunger disasters are deliberately caused or are by-products of war?
With reference to international humanitarian law (International Humanitarian Law(IHL), the International Criminal Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2417 condemn warring parties that deprive civilians of essential items such as food and deny humanitarian aid organizations access to them or deliberately obstruct them. Attacking aid organizations is also a violation of the IHL, yet 187 humanitarian workers have already lost their lives this year.
The IPC Famine Review Committee has has clarified whether a famine exists in 20 cases since 2011. It defines famine as the worst of five levels of starvation. This appalling state of emergency exists when 20 percent of households are affected by extreme food shortages, 30 percent of children suffer from acute malnutrition and two in 10,000 adults or four in 10,000 children starve to death every day. In 19 of the 20 cases, wars were the main cause of the food shortages. Not because there is not enough food in the world for starving people, but because they are all too often denied access to life-saving aid supplies during war. Hunger is therefore primarily man-made.
In which theaters of war is hunger currently used as a weapon of war and what mechanisms are used to cause hunger?
The World Food Program currently identifies 15 countries in which hunger poses an acute threat. The situation is particularly critical in the Gaza Strip and in Sudanwhere many people were already starving before the recent conflicts. Specific allegations also concern Syria, particularly in the course of the blockade of Aleppo in 2016, as well as Yemen, where aid supplies were blocked in the port of Hodeidah in order to exert pressure on Houthi rebels. International observers have concluded that the humanitarian crisis in in the Ethiopian region of Tigray from 2020 is also due to the fact that the warring parties systematically prevented access to water, medical care and food.
What purposes are the warring parties pursuing by starving the population?
Dhe withholding of essential food and the blockade of aid increase the desperation of the civilian population. This is often a political and military means of exerting pressure to gain control. to win and to force concessions. In addition to the current theaters of war that I have mentioned, this was also the case during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s and in Ukraine in the 1930s under Soviet occupation.
“The aim is to make man-made hunger a thing of the past.”
What options does the international community have to respond to such war crimes or prevent them?
At the beginning, I emphasized that it is unacceptable if civilians are not evacuated and cared for. However, it is also unacceptable that heads of government often remain silent when it comes to such crimes or that they play down crises. Such reticence was most recently observed when Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the starvation of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as “justified” at the beginning of August. Russia, on the other hand, is playing down the serious famine in Sudan.
However, the goal is to make man-made hunger a thing of the past. To achieve this, the international community needs to close the international humanitarian funding gap. Only 40 percent of humanitarian needs were recently covered, meaning that only two out of five cases can currently be helped at all. On the other hand, robust food systems are needed: If sustainable agriculture and stable supply chains are promoted, this strengthens the resilience of local communities in the face of global crises in the long term and reduces the risk of food insecurity in the event of war. its dependence on external aid supplies. Furthermore, the international community to apply and enforce the highest standards of international law and, where appropriate, to condemn and sanction violations.
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