Conflict-Based Food Insecurity: How War Drives Hunger Worldwide
- Donna Rosa
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
“If you don’t have food security, you’re not going to have any other security.”
David Beasley, Past Executive Director, World Food Programme
The latest United Nations reporting on the state of global food security and nutrition has been discouraging for years—and not because we don’t know what to do. After earlier progress fighting hunger and malnutrition, the world saw the number of hungry people rise again: over 820 million in 2017, up from 804 million in 2016, the highest in almost a decade at the time. It rose for three years in a row.
Those numbers are not just statistics. They are families making impossible choices, children losing developmental years they will never get back, and communities becoming more fragile—socially, economically, and politically.
And here’s the hard part: fighting hunger is difficult when fighting is a main cause of it.
The Global Report on Food Crises found that almost 124 million people in 51 countries faced crisis-level food insecurity in 2017—an increase of 11 million in a single year. Conflict was the main reason in 60% of those cases.
With conflict-based food insecurity war and instability don’t just happen alongside hunger; they drive it and often weaponize it.
What conflict-based food insecurity looks like
Food insecurity is often described in simple terms—people lack consistent access to enough safe, nutritious food to live healthy lives. But conflict-based food insecurity is especially cruel.
Conflict can cause food insecurity through:
destruction of farms, irrigation systems, storage, and roads
market collapse (goods exist, but people can’t access or afford them)
displacement (people forced off land and away from jobs)
blockades, checkpoints, and sieges (movement restricted)
currency collapse and price inflation
disrupted imports (especially in food-import dependent countries)
targeting of civilian infrastructure (power, water, ports)
When violence and insecurity become persistent, people don’t just run out of food. They lose the ability to produce food, to earn income, and to purchase food all at once.
Hunger as a weapon
Purposely starving people is illegal under international humanitarian law, yet it goes on all the time. It can have many faces:
blocking humanitarian convoys or delaying them until food spoils
attacking aid workers and looting food assistance
destroying crops, livestock, granaries, or markets
restricting access to farmland during planting/harvest seasons
cutting off water supplies or fuel needed for food production and transport
When hunger is weaponized people die in the cruelest way: slowly. Conflict lasts longer because desperation fuels recruitment and instability. Local economies degrade, making recovery harder even after violence ends. Health systems collapse under malnutrition-related disease and children suffer with lifelong impacts on cognition, physical growth, and earning potential. Conflict-based hunger doesn’t end when the shooting stops.
How conflict turns food problems into survival problems
1) Agriculture gets dismantled
Conflict can wipe out food production capacity quickly. Farmers can’t access land due to insecurity or mines, seed systems and input supply chains break down, tractors, irrigation equipment, and storage facilities are stolen or destroyed, and veterinary services disappear, hurting livestock production. Even if peace returns, it can take seasons—or years—to recover.
2) Supply chains fracture
Even when food exists, it may not move. Roads can be unsafe or impassable, fuel becomes scarce or unaffordable, and ports and rail lines can be blocked. The end result is scarcity, price spikes, hoarding, and black markets.
3) Purchasing power collapses
Conflict reduces civilians' ability to buy food even if it's available. They can lose their jobs or livelihoods, inflation can push affordability, and currencies can be devalued.
4) Displacement destroys normal life
Displacement isn’t just relocation—it’s economic amputation. Innocent people lose their land, homes, belongings, and communities in addition to food access.
5) Humanitarian work becomes a battleground
Those trying to help face their own challenges. Humanitarian operations often deal with bureaucratic obstruction, targeted violence, propaganda and rhetoric, and theft.
High-impact interventions can mitigate conflict-driven hunger
1) Protect food systems
Emergency food aid matters. But so does enabling efficient food production and trade. For example:
distributing farm inputs and tools
supporting veterinary services and livestock feed
implementing irrigation systems and water access
building safe, affordable grain storage
2) Provide Cash or vouchers
If food is available but unaffordable, cash-based assistance can be a powerful tool. It can
restore dignity and choice, stimulate local markets and be delivered more easily than physical goods.
3) open trade routes and humanitarian access
Food insecurity spikes when movement is blocked, so logistics and distribution play critical roles. This includes negotiating safe routes, reducing bureaucratic delays, and ensuring humanitarian exemptions for critical imports such as food, fuel, and medicine.
4) implement Early warning systems
Too often, the world waits until hunger hits catastrophe levels before acting. We need to get ahead of the game by monitoring food prices, rainfall, crops, conflicts, and funding needs. It's far less expensive and more humane to prevent famine than to respond to it, but it's not giv en enough priority.
What is the difference between hunger and food insecurity?
Hunger is the physical sensation and condition of not having enough food. Food insecurity is broader: it includes uncertainty about access to food, reduced diet quality, and coping behaviors (skipping meals, reducing portions, selling assets) even before severe hunger is visible.
What does crisis-level food insecurity mean?
Many agencies use the IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) terminology. “Crisis” typically indicates households are facing significant food gaps or using harmful coping strategies that threaten livelihoods and health.
Is hunger in war zones always deliberate?
Not always. Some hunger results from collateral destruction and economic collapse. But in many conflicts, restrictions on food access are strategic, including blockades, sieges, and interference with aid.
What helps more: sending food or money?
It depends on the situation. Food aid is vital when markets collapse or food is unavailable. Cash/vouchers can be more effective when food exists, but people can’t afford it. The best responses often combine both.
What is one of the biggest mistakes outsiders make when trying to help?
Ignoring local context and capacity. Solutions imposed without understanding markets, security realities, and local leadership can waste resources—or unintentionally increase risk.
How can businesses help without getting in the way?
By supporting logistics, systems, and local market function—and by partnering with credible organizations that already have access, trust, and operational capacity.
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