The relationship between hunger and war is a self-reinforcing and vicious cycle – while war and conflict may plunge civilians caught up by them into food insecurity, hunger can cause latent conflicts to flare up and trigger violence. Control of food too often then becomes a weapon of war, the starving of trapped populations seen as legitimate means of coercing surrender. Yesterday’s award of the Nobel Prize for Peace to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) is a welcome reaffirmation of the work of the group, the world’s largest humanitarian organisation in addressing hunger and food security, as a peace project. In 2019, 135 million people suffered from acute hunger, the highest figure in many years, and some 100 million in 88 countries were reached in some way by the WFP. The award committee made no overt comment on the 317 unsuccessful 2020 nominees whose names are notionally shrouded in secrecy.

Source: The Irish Times October 09, 2020 18:45 UTC