'As civilians languish in misery, political elites grow fat with impunity': Pope slams use of hunger as weapon of war

On Wednesday, the new Pontifex slammed practices such as burning crops, stealing livestock and blocking aid used by armed militias.

He urged for those responsible for the practices to be held accountable.

The comments came in a message sent at the start of the week to participants in the annual conference of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome.

In the lengthy address, His Holiness said starving people to death is a "very cheap way of waging war”.

'Tragedy'

The full social media post said: "We are witnessing with despair the iniquitous use of hunger as a weapon of war.

Burning crops, stealing livestock, and blocking aid are tactics increasingly used by armed militias.

"As civilians languish in misery, political elites grow fat with impunity.

"It is time to sanction these abuses and hold accountable those who are responsible for it.

He went on: "Although the earth can produce enough food for all humanity, many of the world’s poor still lack their daily bread.

"This makes the tragedy of hunger and malnutrition even more lamentable and shameful."

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More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organisations, including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty, called on Tuesday for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund.

"Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the group said in a joint news release.

The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF - a secretive US and Israeli-backed initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Donald Trump.

GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade which has pushed Gaza's population of more than two million people to the brink of famine.

In a statement on Tuesday, the organisation said it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks.

"Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza," the statement said.

"We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need. At the end of the day, the Palestinian people need to be fed."

Last month, the organisation said there had been no violence in or around its distribution centres and that its personnel had not opened fire.

According to Gaza's Health Ministry, more than 500 Palestinians have been killed around the chaotic and controversial aid distribution programme over the past month.

Palestinians are often forced to travel long distances to access the GHF hubs in hopes of obtaining aid.

The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that took distribution away from aid groups led by the UN.

The new mechanism limits food distribution to a small number of hubs under guard of armed contractors, where people must go to pick it up. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions.

Israel had demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there was significant diversion, and say the new mechanism allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective.

The Israeli military said it had recently taken steps to improve organisation in the area.

Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas.

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, hunger remains an ever-present issue.

Twenty-eight million people face acute hunger in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a record for the country, driven by an escalating conflict between the government and Rwandan-backed rebels in the east, the United Nations said earlier this year.

A longstanding humanitarian crisis in Congo has been aggravated by the conflict, with 2.5 million more people becoming acutely hungry since the most recent surge of violence in December, the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a joint statement.

Amid battles and food insecurity across Sudan, many war-weary people are turning to weeds and wild plants to sustain themselves.

The risk of famine has extended close to the capital Khartoum, the UN’s World Food Programme warned as the country’s brutal civil war grinds on into its third year.

The agency discovered “severe” levels of hunger in the town of Jabal Awliya, some 40km (25 miles) south of Khartoum, the WFP’s Sudan representative Laurent Bukera said.