NEW YORK, 24 August. - (ANA) - Carl Skau, Acting Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), will be in New York on 25–26 August and will brief a high-level UN Security Council open debate on conflict and food security on Tuesday 25 August, alongside UN Secretary General António Guterres.

 

The debate, “Food under fire: the Security Council’s role in mitigating global and local food crises,” will examine how the Security Council can strengthen implementation of Resolution 2417 (2018) and better respond to conflict-driven hunger, including when the effects of armed conflict on food security are felt far beyond the immediate area of hostilities.

 

Conflict remains the leading driver of acute food insecurity globally. At the same time, fighting in the Middle East and Ukraine, combined with rising El Niño concerns, is posing further risks to global food security through disruption to energy flows, fertilizer supplies, food production, trade routes and humanitarian operations.

 

Skau arrives in New York following a visit to Somalia, where around one-third of the population - six million people - are facing acute hunger or worse, including nearly two million people at emergency levels of hunger. Conflict, drought, displacement, reduced humanitarian assistance and rising food and fuel costs are converging, while WFP currently has resources to support barely one in ten people who need assistance, leaving millions exposed to hunger and malnutrition.

 

Skau has also recently visited critical WFP operations in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/24 August 2026 - - -