Overview

• Speaking to roughly 125 delegations in Rome, the pontiff urged leaders not to look away from food emergencies and called widespread hunger a collective failure.
• He condemned the use of starvation as a tactic in conflicts, emphasizing that international humanitarian law forbids attacks on civilians and on goods essential to survival.
• He cited United Nations data estimating about 673 million people are undernourished worldwide.
• He referenced World Food Programme findings that 319 million face acute food insecurity, including 44 million at emergency levels, with funding shortfalls forcing drastic aid cuts.
• He highlighted severe needs in Ukraine, Gaza, Haiti, Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Yemen, and South Sudan.