Hunger Must Never Be 'Weapon Of War': UN Chief
The African Union, for its part, urged donors to provide greater support for the world's poorest continent struggling with poverty, unrest and the effects of climate change.
"Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war," Antonio Guterres told the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa via video link.
"Climate change is disrupting harvests, supply chains and humanitarian aid," he said.
"Conflict continues to spread hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond," he warned amid a severely deteriorating crisis in Gaza, whose population of more than two million is facing famine and malnutrition.
The World Health Organization has warned malnutrition in the occupied Palestinian territory has reached "alarming levels" since Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2.
In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume but more than 100 NGOs have warned that "mass starvation" was spreading in the besieged territory.
The summit takes place against the backdrop of aid cuts by the United States and other Western nations that are badly affecting much of the developing world.
Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, head of the African Union's executive commission, said food insecurity was on the rise across Africa, blaming "climate shocks, conflicts and economic disruptions".
"At this crucial moment, how many children and mothers on the continent are sleeping hungry?" he asked.
"Millions, certainly. The urgency of the situation is beyond doubt."
Youssouf said that more than 280 Africans were malnourished, with "nearly 3.4 million... on the brink of famine".
Roughly 10 million people had been displaced due to drought, floods and cyclones, he added.
Youssouf urged AU member states to devote 10 percent of their gross domestic product to agriculture to help foster "nutritional resilience".
"But we cannot do this alone. We call on our partners to honour their commitments to finance and support African solutions," he said.
Sudan is "the largest humanitarian catastrophe facing our world and also the least remembered", Othman Belbeisi, the regional director of the UN's migration agency, IOM, told reporters last week.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been torn apart by a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commander of the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than seven million people.
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Increasing Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is expected to be high on the agenda in Ramallah, as is a non-binding resolution passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, last week supporting the total annexation of the West Bank by Israel. After meeting with leading Israeli politicians in Jerusalem on Thursday, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Wadephul warned that "Israel runs the risk of becoming increasingly isolated internationally" over what he called a "humanitarian disaster" in Gaza which is "beyond imagination." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Hello and welcome to our coverage of developments in the continuing conflict in the Middle East on Friday, August 1. After warning Israel on Thursday to do more to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip or face increasing international isolation, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul will today travel to the occupied West Bank for talks with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority. Elsewhere, US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is also in the region and is set to visit Gaza alongside the US ambassor to Israel, Mike Huckabee. Meanwhile, there are renewed reports of Palestinians being shot and killed by Israeli troops while trying to access food and aid. And if you missed anything, you can catch up on yesterday's developments here.
