The World Food Programme warned on Tuesday (August 25) that escalating conflicts and shrinking funding were driving global hunger to crisis levels, leaving aid agencies close to having “nothing to give at all.”
Acting Executive Director Carl Skau said nearly 300 million people were acutely food insecure, triple the level six years ago, while WFP received only 40% of the funding it needed last year.
Speaking after briefing the U.N. Security Council, Skau said waiting for famine declarations amounted to a “total failure of duty” and urged immediate action to protect civilians, infrastructure and humanitarian workers.
He warned that disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, combined with escalating Black Sea tensions, had created a “triple choking point.”
Skau said one-third of global wheat exports passes through the Bosphorus Strait and cautioned that further Black Sea escalation would have dire consequences for food security worldwide.
