UN chief urges breaking vicious cycle of wars and hunger

UN Secretary General António Guterres on Tuesday called for urgent action to break the vicious cycle of armed conflict and food shortages worldwide. Guterres said the link between conflict, violence and hunger is undeniable, stressing that Security Council resolution 2417, adopted in 2018 to address this issue, must be fully and consistently implemented.

"Resolution 2417 recognises the need to break the vicious cycle between armed conflict and food insecurity. Yet that vicious cycle continues. So today I call on this Council to consider three measures to strengthen and build on this landmark resolution," Guterres said during a Council debate on its role in mitigating global and local food crises.

First, resolution 2417 must be consistently and fully implemented. For parties to conflict, this means not depriving civilians of items essential to their survival — including food, crops, livestock and drinking water — and refraining from attacking, destroying, removing or rendering them useless, Guterres said. Second, food systems must be protected in their entirety. Conflicts or violence must not prevent farmers from working their fields, keep crops in the ground or on the land, or impede food storage, he said.

And third, humanitarian personnel must be protected, the UN chief stressed. "It is no coincidence that 2025 saw not only the highest number of armed conflicts since the Second World War, but also one of the highest levels of acute hunger ever recorded — at least 266 million people faced acute food insecurity. 2025 also marked the first time this century that two famines were confirmed simultaneously — in Sudan and Gaza," he added.

Guterres warned that war not only directly destroys agricultural production and food supply systems, but also affects trade, energy and transport networks, causing food crises to spread across national borders.