Friday May 25, 2018
Nyakol, a malnourished 18-year-old Sudanese, suffers from the consequences of cerebral malaria, in Touch Riak, on March 7, 2018
UNITED NATIONS (UNITED STATES) - With
famine on the rise worldwide, the UN Security Council threatened
sanctions Thursday against governments, armies and rebels that block
humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in war zones.
A resolution put forward by Ivory Coast, Kuwait, the Netherlands and
Sweden was unanimously adopted, winning backing from Russia, which is
facing calls to pressure its Syrian ally to allow aid convoys to
rebel-held areas.
Famine has been on the rise over the past two
years, reversing decades of decline, as conflicts have intensified and
hunger is increasingly used as a weapon of war.
More than 74 million people are going hungry in war zones around the world, according to the United Nations.
Dutch
UN Deputy Ambassador Lise Gregoire-van Haaren described the resolution
as a "landmark" text because the council "for the first time
unequivocally condemns the use of starvation as a method of warfare." Swedish
Ambassador Olof Skoog said the resolution "breaks new ground" by making
clear that those who block aid shipments can face sanctions.
"It
makes sense that countries or individuals that block humanitarian access
should be sanctioned, and this is one of the possibilities that now
opens up," Skoog told reporters.
Addressing the council, Russia
argued that armed conflicts were not the only factor behind the spread
of famine, pointing to rising food prices, natural disasters and climate
change as new drivers of hunger.
The war in Yemen has left more
than eight million people on the brink of starvation out of 17 million
who are severely food insecure, according to the United Nations.
South Sudan's army and rebel groups have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war, with repeated attacks on aid workers.
Last year, the United Nations raised alarm over the threat of famine in parts of Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
In
Syria, now in its eighth year of war, 13 million people are in need of
food aid, including three million Syrians who live in besieged or
hard-to-reach areas.