Pope Leo XIV has warned of the increasing use around the world of “the iniquitous use of hunger as a weapon of war”, while decrying the "despair" that accompanies it.
The pontiff’s 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 (FAO) taking place in Rome.
In his message, Pope Leo said that starving people to death “is a very cheap way of waging war”.
He explained: “That is why today, when most conflicts are not fought by regular armies but by groups of armed civilians with few resources, burning land and stealing livestock blocking aid are tactics increasingly used by those who seek to control entire unarmed populations.
