Freeing Ukrainian wheat by facilitating its return to world markets is an urgent and timely imperative. But at the same time, warring parties around the world continue to use famine as a weapon, as old as war itself. The authors of this article, researchers in international law, argue that the time has finally come to prosecute the tactical use of starvation for what it is: a war crime.
Despite legal advances, starvation crimes have been evident in recent or current conflicts in Ethiopia, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.