In Gazathe image of hunger once again took center stage in 2025. He blockade of humanitarian aidthe stopped convoys and the closed crossings put the focus on a practice that is repeated in other conflicts, from Ukraine until Sudan. The scarcity of food and water is not only a collateral consequence of the refugee camps, but also part of the logic of combat.
“It’s not just the war that makes people flee: also the scarcity of food, because when the supply corridor is broken, the food does not arrive”explains to EL PERIÓDICO Lakachew Getnet Workineh, head of nutrition and food safety at UNHCR in Gambella, Ethiopia, where mainly displaced Sudanese arrive. It is a dynamic known in contexts of prolonged violence: when conflict breaks out, “Transportation is blocked and part of the country is left without food”.
Sudan is today one of the most extreme examples. After the capture of El Fasher, in North Darfur, thousands of people have fled to Tawila, reporting murders, torture and kidnappings. Humanitarian organizations describe saturated camps for displaced people, with barely 1.5 liters of water per person per day and without sufficient access to food. ““The main cause of famine is not having access to enough food.”Workineh summarizes, for the active blocking of aid. “About 40% of the recommended daily food assistance is being provided, and there are no income or livelihood alternatives to access food”he adds.
Displaced women and children from El Fasher, Sudan, find themselves in a precarious situation in Tawila, with famine and lack of water and sanitation / Natalia Romero/ MSF
Lifelong impact
The impact is not always measured in immediate deaths. “Mortality is not the highest: the problem is that malnutrition is increasing”warns the head of UNHCR, since the consequences are very long term. Hunger, thus, operates as a silent weapon and the consequences for those who survive are lifelong.
“The most serious problem is growth retardation: it is not just being shorter, it is an impact on cognitive development”Workineh emphasizes. The difference is key: “Acute malnutrition can be treated; growth retardation, once the critical period has passed, is largely irreversible”. The period in which you can act is a window of the first 1,000 days: from conception to two years.
Chronology
Nutritional supplements, such as bars or shakes, that are given in refugee camps to save malnourished people and minors from death have a ceiling, and a varied diet of real foods is essential. And the damage is transmitted. “Stunting has an intergenerational effect: a malnourished girl is at greater risk of having malnourished children”. It is not a hypothesis, he insists: “It is scientific evidence: if the cycle is not broken in early childhood, malnutrition is reproduced in the next generation”.
Malnutrition multiplies other crises. “Weakens the immune system and increases susceptibility to diseases”adds Workineh. Hunger, disease and poverty reinforce each other. “It’s not just hunger: it’s more illness, poorer development, and less ability to learn and thrive.”.
The mother in the center
Breaking this cycle requires going beyond the food emergency and looking at those who sustain daily survival in the fields: mothers. From that logic was born the Mom Projectwhich places the mother at the center of the fight against child malnutrition, and which the ”la Caixa” Foundation develops together with UNHCR since 2017. The initiative arises from the paradox that in armed conflicts “Those who suffer the most are women and children”who arrive at the refugee camps with very high levels of malnutrition, but they are also the ones who articulate the displaced society.
“In refugee camps, creating a specific malnutrition program is already innovative, because there is almost never a budget to do it,” Ariadna Bardolet, director of the Department of International Programs at the ”la Caixa” Foundation, explains to this newspaper. “Therefore, putting the mother at the center is key to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition,” he adds. Thus, since 2017, they have managed to reduce acute malnutrition from 24% to 10%, something unthinkable with interventions lasting one or two years.
“Catastrophic situation”
The NGOs agree on the diagnosis. “Hunger is a weapon of war, and it is quite effective”summarizes Elise Nalbandian, head of Oxfam in Africa, when talking about Sudan, but with a view that extends to other conflicts. The blockade of humanitarian aid, he emphasizes, is no exception. “They flee violence and conflict, and then run towards hunger”he explains. The feeling of permanent emergency is repeated: “We say this is unprecedented until, three months later, it gets worse again”.
International reports reinforce this reading. In Gaza, the latest analysis of IPC signals fragile relief following October 2025 ceasefire, but 1.6 million people remain severely food insecure, with more than 100,000 still in situation “catastrophic” famine (5 out of 5). In Ukraine, a study of the siege of Mariupol concludes that starvation was a deliberate method of forcing surrender. In Sudan, the IPC committee itself considers it plausible to classify as Phase 5 famine in the besieged area of El Fasher, where up to 30% of the population is already on the verge of dying of hunger.
From UNHCR, they insist that, as long as wars continue, famines will continue to perpetuate themselves. “We treat a child for months, he gets better, he comes home… and two months later he comes back malnourished. That’s the cycle”summarizes Workineh. Treatment works, but it is not enough for intact structural causes. “We can cure them with treatment, but if there is no prevention they relapse again”. Therefore, the solutions to such structural problems must come from a holistic and long-term approach: food and water but also sanitation, and above all accompanied by emotional support.
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