The Return of Famine
Between 2000 and 2011 there were no famines, and deaths in humanitarian emergencies had been much reduced. Yet today famine has returned to the world stage. In 2017, the United Nations identified four situations of acute food insecurity that threatened famine or breached that threshold—in north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
Drawing on Tufts University’s distinguished record of scholarship and public engagement on the subject of famine, a conference hosted by the World Peace Foundation earlier this spring brought together faculty and researchers from across the University, in conversation with outside experts.
Panelists addressed why famine has returned, today’s humanitarian challenges, legal and political issues related to criminalizing famine, and the most pressing famine of today, Yemen.