One child living in a warzone may die of hunger every minute.
That’s the startling assessment from the UK-based charity Save The Children.
The group released a report on the use of hunger as a weapon in some of the world’s worst conflicts.
It said 4.5 million children under five will need treatment for severe malnutrition before the end of the year. That’s a 20 percent increase from 2016.
Tens of thousands of children could die in Yemen, Afghanistan, and South Sudan.
But the biggest number of fatalities is expected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 300,000 children are at risk.
Save the Children warned starvation is increasingly used as a weapon with warring parties blocking food and medicine – leading to devastating consequences.
Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, intentionally starving civilians is a war crime.
So, what should be done to deal with the crisis?
Presenter: Hoda Abdel-Hamid
Guests
Sultan Barakat – director of the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies
Justa Hopma – research fellow at Global Food Justice at The University of Sheffield, UK
Keyan Salarkia – Save the Children spokesman
Source: Al Jazeera
