A trio of Christian organisations have signed a joint open letter calling on governments, institutions and people of faith to bring an end to world hunger and malnutrition.
Since the outbreak of hostilities between Iran and the Israel-US alliance, concerns have mounted that food may become scarcer, particularly in the developing world. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz caused a spike in oil prices but also inhibited the global trade in agricultural fertiliser.
The World Food Programme has suggested that 45 million people could be pushed into “acute hunger” if the conflict continues, mostly in Africa and Asia.
Ecumenical body the World Council of Churches and Christian aid organisations Caritas Internationalis and World Vision International in their joint open letter described “hunger amid abundance” as “a moral failure”.
The letter blames world hunger not only on various ongoing conflicts and those displaced by them, but also on economic instability and climate change. The letter cites the Global Report on Food Crises 2026, which suggests that 318 million people are facing “crisis-level hunger”.
Another report released in 2025 suggested that 8.2 per cent of the world’s population, 673 million people, experienced hunger in 2024.
In their letter the organisations called upon international governments to protect human rights and humanitarian access, to safeguard child nutrition programmes, to protect global supply chains, and to work towards world peace.
As well as disrupting the production and transport of food, military conflict has also seen hunger used as a weapon.
During the siege of El Fasher in Sudan the besieging RSF did little to allow humanitarian aid into the city and was accused of using refugee camps as military basis. Israel has also been accused of “weaponizing” aid against Gaza by exercising tight control over aid agencies and the distribution of aid in the region.
Israel has cited concerns that aid was instead being used by the militant group Hamas to exercise control over the local population. Such claims have been disputed.
