Calls to prosecute the war crime of starvation are becoming louder and more frequent.“[Famine] is a weapon of war being wielded across the globe at the moment. But this has to stop, it’s against international humanitarian law,” Shayna Lewis, senior adviser on Sudan for the US-based group PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities) told DW recently. She was talking about the Sudanese city of El Fasher, which has been under siege for a year now and where food is running out for around 30,000 people trapped there.“It is a crime internationally and it needs to be prosecuted as such,” Lewis argued.Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have said similar about Israel’s blockade of aid and food into the Gaza Strip.“Israel is starving Gaza. It’s genocide. It’s a crime against humanity. It’s a war crime,” Michael Fakhri, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on the right to food, told UK newspaper the Guardian last week.

Food as a weapon of war

Experts say that part of the reason there are now more calls to prosecute starvation of civilians as a war crime, is that there is more famine being caused by conflict.Over the first decade of this century, there was very little famine, researchers at the World Peace Foundation, or WPF, wrote in a 2022 collection of essays, “Accountability for Starvation.” But more recently that has changed.“This is an ancient phenomenon, warring parties have been using it for centuries,” Rebecca Bakos Blumenthal, a legal adviser with the Starvation Accountability project run by Netherlands-based law foundation, Global Rights Compliance, or GRC, says. After 2015, this kind of tactic has re-emerged, she noted.Over the past decade, there have been conflict-related famines in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Food security experts suggest Russian attacks on Ukraine’s agricultural sector could also be seen as criminal attempts to weaponize food.Basically there’s just more of this war crime happening again, they argue.“Even while global food security is improving, the incidence of famines is increasing,” Alex de Waal, a professor at Tufts University in the US and head of the WPF’s research into mass starvation, wrote last week. “This tells us that the global food security is more volatile and unequal. That’s consistent with hunger being used as a weapon.”The deliberate withholding of food or other essentials needed for civilians’ survival is categorized as a war crime by many nations as well as in various iterations of international law, including the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute (which is applied by the International Criminal Court, or ICC).But so far, those who wield that “weapon” have never been brought to trial: The war crime of starvation has never been prosecuted in an international court on its own, only as a part of around 20 other war crimes cases.And just because civilians are going hungry in a conflict, doesn’t mean a crime was committed.“One of the issues in law is the question of intent,” de Waal told DW. “The war crime of starvation requires that the perpetrator is acting with intent.” Starvation happens over the longer term, de Waal points out, and some legal scholars have argued it must be proven that a perpetrator intended to starve people from the very beginning of, for example, a siege or blockade.But most legal experts believe there could also be “indirect intent,” de Waal explains. That is, it’s clear that starvation will occur “in the normal course of events,” and the perpetrator knows that, they’ve had opportunities to prevent it, but didn’t do so.Another issue for any legal case involving starvation is the lack of precedent, and which international or national courts have jurisdiction over the alleged war criminals.

Changing views on starvation as war crime

Up until a couple of years ago, starvation was often seen as a developmental or humanitarian issue, GRC’s Blumenthal explains. But now there is more attention being paid to its criminal aspects.“I’ve worked on this issue for quite a few years now and these things do move slowly,” concedes Blumenthal, who’s been looking at the topic since 2020. “But I do think the needle is moving and there have been some consequential steps taken over the past 10 years.”In 2018, the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 2417, “condemning the starving of civilians as a method of warfare.”In 2019, changes were made to the Rome Statute, making starvation a war crime in non-international armed conflicts too, rather than just international. There have also been UN commissions of inquiry on conflicts in South Sudan and Ethiopia-Tigray specifically focusing on the topic of starvation as a war crime, Blumenthal points out. “We’re seeing a lot more international and local organizations, together with accountability mechanisms, calling this out and certain striking examples, like the case of Gaza today, have really amplified awareness around the crime as well,” she notes.In fact, the ICC warrants issued against Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, which specifically mention the war crime of starvation, are a “historic milestone,” Blumenthal notes. It’s the first time that international warrants have been issued for starvation as a stand-alone crime. The ICC also has an open investigation into Sudan going, she adds.“The issue has undoubtedly gained more attention over the last 10 years,” de Waal confirms. “The legal frameworks are all in place. What’s lacking is the political will to act.”

Will perpetrators of starvation ever end up in court?

There are still jurisdictional challenges, de Waal told DW. “But I am confident that there are many cases for which conviction is possible. It just requires getting the accused in court.”Blumenthal agrees. “There are misconceptions around this and so many people think [starvation] is an inevitable part of war,” she says. “But during our in-depth investigations, it’s surprising how quickly it becomes clear that actually these patterns are very stark and in many situations, you can discern a deliberate strategy.”Blumenthal is cautiously optimistic that one day soon those who deliberately starve civilians will face justice.“That is certainly the hope,” she concludes. “That’s what we are all working towards.”