Billions urgently needed to address world’s hunger hot spots, World Food Programme boss says

Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme, said Sunday the organization could “use $17 billion right now” to feed desperately hungry people.

Speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” McCain said that crises around the globe, many of them in war zones, have depleted the coffers of her organization at a time of rampant malnutrition and starvation. She specified war-torn Syria first and foremost as a crisis spot.

“I’m asking on your show, worldwide, to please consider, once again, giving to Syria,” she told host Margaret Brennan, “because people in Syria will starve to death without it, and we’ve seen the evidence of great hunger there.”

Earlier this month, Syria’s longtime dictator Bashar Assad was forced to flee, but the Middle Eastern nation is neither unified nor stable at this point. She urged Syria’s neighbors to open up safe supply lines so food can be brought in.

“We have been able to get 70,000 people fed this month so far, but we need more,” she said, adding: “More importantly, we need the funds to do it.”

McCain cited other places where people are desperate for food now amid political instability that both occurs because of the hunger and contributes to it. “The world is on fire right now,” she said.

One such country is Sudan. “People are starving to death,” she said, adding: “I sound like a broken record, but we need to be able to get in in a safe and unfettered manner, so that we can get the job done. Again, food security is national security.”

McCain and Brennan also discussed the situation in Gaza, where fighting continues in the Israel-Hamas war, making it difficult to bring food in and creating hazardous situations for anyone trying to do so.

“We can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death,” McCain said. “We need help, and we need to make sure that we put political pressure on those that need to have political pressure put on them.”