UNITED NATIONS - Two UN agencies on Friday told the UN Security Council that ongoing conflicts around the world have pushed more than 56 million people into "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity and are hindering efforts to eradicate malnutrition.
According to a series of 17 country briefs prepared for the 15- nation UN council by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), Yemen and Syria top the list in terms of sheer numbers of people whose food security is being negatively impacted by ongoing conflict.
"Conflict is a leading cause of hunger -- each famine in the modern era has been characterized by conflict," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva and WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin said Friday in a joint news release.
"(It) undermines food security in multiple ways: destroying crops, livestock and agricultural infrastructure, disrupting markets, causing displacement, creating fear and uncertainty over fulfilling future needs, damaging human capital and contributing to the spread of disease among others," they added. (Xinhua)