{"id":16932,"date":"2025-10-16T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16932"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:00:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T00:00:41","slug":"on-world-food-day-pope-leo-condemns-use-of-hunger-as-weapon-of-war-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16932","title":{"rendered":"“On World Food Day, Pope Leo condemns use of hunger as weapon of war”, PBS, Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Giada Zampano, Associated Press<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

World<\/a>\u00a0Oct 16, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROME (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced the use of hunger as a weapon of war as he urged world leaders to act responsibly and focus on the multitudes across the globe who face hunger, wars and misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pope<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During an address on World Food Day at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Leo urged the international community to not look the other way, at a time of dwindling foreign aid budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pope named the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, along with Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen and South Sudan. He cited U.N. data showing that around 673 million people do not eat enough each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe can no longer delude ourselves by thinking that the consequences of our failures impact only those who are hidden out of sight,\u201d he said. \u201cThe hungry faces of so many who still suffer challenge us and invite us to reexamine our lifestyles, our priorities and our overall way of living in today\u2019s world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe must make their suffering our own,\u201d he concluded in English, after delivering most of his speech in Spanish to world leaders, ministers and ambassadors gathered at FAO\u2019s Rome headquarters for an event commemorating the U.N. agency\u2019s 80th anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE: <\/strong>Trucks carrying UN food aid to Sudan\u2019s famine-hit Darfur region destroyed by drone attack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo condemned the use of hunger as a weapon of war, but didn\u2019t name any specific conflict or region. Humanitarian groups have long denounced the practice, in which food or aid is restricted or diverted during a conflict, leaving innocent civilians to go hungry. Most recently, even some Jewish groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, a claim Israel strongly denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a time when science has lengthened life expectancy, allowing millions of human beings to live, and die, struck by hunger is a collective failure, an ethical derailment, a historic offense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leo\u2019s warning comes as U.N. food aid agencies face severe funding cuts from their top donors that risk hurting their operations in key countries and forcing millions of people into emergency levels of hunger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Food Program, traditionally the U.N.\u2019s most-funded agency, said in a new report on Wednesday that its funding this year \u201chas never been more challenged\u201d \u2014 largely due to slashed outlays from the U.S. under the Trump administration and other leading Western donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It warned that 13.7 million of its food aid recipients could be forced into emergency levels of hunger as funding is cut. The countries facing \u201cmajor disruptions\u201d are Afghanistan, Congo, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giada Zampano, Associated Press World\u00a0Oct 16, 2025 ROME (AP) \u2014 Pope Leo XIV on Thursday denounced the use of hunger as a weapon of war as he urged world leaders to act responsibly and focus on the multitudes across the globe who face hunger, wars and misery. During an address on World Food Day at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16934,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16932\/revisions\/16934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}