Cyprus’ Special Envoy for Multilateralism, Ambassador Andreas Kakouris, stressed during UN Security Council open debate on conflict-related food insecurity, that conflict-related hunger and food insecurity’ are not a natural disaster, but the direct outcome of political failure, instability and the erosion of respect for international humanitarian law’.
He recalled that resolution 2417 ‘reaffirmed that starvation must never be used as a method of warfare’ and underlined that yet across numerous conflicts, ‘we continue to witness restrictions on humanitarian access, the destruction of vital infrastructure and intolerant risks faced by those striving to deliver life-saving assistance’.
Ambassador Kakouris highlighted the need to ‘guarantee safe, sustained, and unhindered humanitarian access’ and to ‘protect humanitarian and medical personnel’, while emphasizing accountability for deliberate obstruction of aid or the use of starvation as a weapon.
He concluded that preventing hunger in conflict ‘is not solely a humanitarian challenge, it is a political responsibility,’ urging the Council to reaffirm that ‘famine is preventable’ and that safeguarding humanitarian workers is essential to ‘preserving our common humanity’.