With 30 Million Facing Famine, Secretary-General Announces Prevention Task Force, Warns Security Council against Cutting Aid as Solution to Economic Woes

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Publication language
English
Date published
11 Mar 2021
Publisher
United Nations General Secretary
Type
Presentations
Keywords
Comms, media & information

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the Security Council debate on conflict and food security, held today:

Thank you for this opportunity to brief you on the links between conflict and hunger — an urgent and important issue.  Today, I have one simple message:  If you don’t feed people, you feed conflict.  Conflict drives hunger and famine, and hunger and famine drive conflict.

When a country or region is gripped by conflict and hunger, they become mutually reinforcing.  They cannot be resolved separately.  Hunger and poverty combine with inequality, climate shocks, sectarian and ethnic tensions and grievances over land and resources, to spark and drive conflict.