World hunger…

survival in countries afflicted by violent conflicts, with children suffering the most, the United Nations report said. Battles between armed groups within nations have increased 125 percent since 2010, with hunger often enlisted as an allied aggressor. Conflict in South Sudan produced “a humanitarian catastrophe on a massive scale.” Famine was declared in some parts of that country this year, with two out of five people suffering severe hunger and food deprivation “being used as a weapon of war,” the report noted.

In Yemen, 60 percent of the population — 17 million people — live in hunger and need urgent help. Similar conditions were underlined in Nigeria and Somalia. The human destruction wrought by rampant conflict was clearest, perhaps, in Syria, whose once-vibrant middle-income population has been decimated by civil war. An estimated 85 percent struggles in poverty now, with more than six million people suffering persistent hunger in a land where agriculture has been devastated.

Compounding these problems globally are the disruptions of climate change — droughts and floods, as well as political crises and severe economic drops in nations reliant on commodity exports, the study found.

If the diplomats at the United Nations are paying attention to the world out there, the report should prod them into a fresh look at hunger and an increased resolve to drive it back down. There are signs of hope, notably an increase in better nutrition through the breast-feeding of infants.

Unfortunately, President Trump, for all the spotlight he commanded this week at the United Nations, has already proposed a severe cut in funding for the organization. But the United Nations is larger than any of its members. Its ultimate constituency is humanity itself. The planet’s diplomats have been put on notice that, whatever their differences, they cannot afford to let up in the fight against global hunger.