In 2022, then UK Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Russia of ‘holding the world to ransom over food’. She said,

“Putin is weaponising hunger and lack of food among the poorest people around the world. He needs to remove the blockade on Ukrainian grain”.

During the UK/US-led regime change war waged against Syria from before 2011, the accusations of starvation by the Syrian government and allied forces were rattled out in the MI6-aligned media, incessantly.

When these indignant lines are rolled out to criminalise the adversary or obstacle to resource-grab, we should never forget Global Britain’s history of starving the world into submission.

During the World War 1 annexation and occupation of Iran from 1917-1919, more than 8 million Iranians died under British occupation. The occupying militaries confiscated grain and livestock to feed their own forces. This severely disrupted local food distribution and led to huge price increases. The resulting famine was compounded by typhus, cholera, and the 1918 ‘influenza pandemic’ that tore through already an already decimated Iranian population.

In 1942-1943, the British alongside the Soviets again occupied Iran. The ‘allies’ took control of the Trans-Iranian railway and forcibly requisitioned half of Iran’s publicly and privately owned trucks. This was done to ensure the unhindered transport of oil and other supplies to the Soviet Union during World War 2. As a result, the allies took control of 75% of Iranian food distribution capacity. Another famine took hold and the Iranian people once more suffered the debilitating consequences of British foreign policy.

The tip of the iceberg: examples of Global Britain’s heinous track record…

Ireland: The ‘famine’ of 1845-1852 was engineered by the British. Over 1 million Irish starved to death, 1.5 million were ethnically cleansed. Many were left on ‘coffin ships’ where passengers were crushed into the dark, unventilated holds of unseaworthy ships bound for North America. An estimated one third of passengers died, bodies flung overboard without ceremony or acknowledgement.

Website Crimes of Britain states: “During Black 47, the worst year of the so-called famine, almost 4,000 vessels left Ireland carrying food to the ports of Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool and London, to feed English people. If we take butter alone, over 800,000 gallons was exported from Ireland at gunpoint”.

India: Under British rule, mass starvation was a population control policy. Rice was stolen from the mouths of the famine-struck indigenous population to feed the British imperialist complex bleeding the country dry of resources. The following statistics were produced by Crimes of Britain.

1. The Great Bengal Famine (1769-1770), more than 10 million deaths
2. Madras City/surrounding areas (1782-1783) and Chalisa famines (1783-1784), total deaths for both was over 11 million
3. Doji Bara Famine (1791-1792), over 11 million deaths
4. Agra Famine (1837-1838), close to 1 million deaths
5. Upper Doab Famine (1860-1861), 2 million deaths
6. Orissa (Odisha) Famine (1866), over 1 million deaths
7. Rajputana Famine (1868-1870), over 1.5 million deaths
8. Bihar Famine (1873-1874) — the relief effort for this famine was deemed ‘excessive’, it was decided future relief should be ‘thrift’.
9. Great Famine (1876-1878), more than 5.5 million deaths
10. Ganjam/Orissa/Bihar (1888-1889), hundreds of thousands of deaths
11. Indian Famine (1896-1897), millions of deaths
12. Indian Famine (1899-1900), more than 1 million deaths
13. Bombay Presidency Famine (1905-1906), hundreds of thousands of deaths
14. Bengal Famine (1943-1944) more than 4 million deaths.

To compound the cruelty and suffering, the British imperialists forced food-deprived Indians to walk more than 10 miles to the food distribution centres where meagre supplies were provided. An exercise in collective punishment and humiliation. This is being repeated today in Gaza where mass starvation is an ongoing trickle genocide. Gazans forced to walk miles to the nearest ‘relief’ posts where they are sniped, shelled, or bombed by the occupying Zionist forces. The savagery of forcing an already wounded, traumatised, starving population to stand in line for hand-outs from their murderers is no different to what the British have done throughout their colonialist history.

Malaya: From 1948-1960, the British punished Malayans who objected to the looting of their oil resources. A ‘food denial’ program was introduced called Operation Starvation. This included spraying food crops with deadly Agent Orange.

Biafra: The British sponsored and armed Nigerian mercenaries during the Biafran war 1967-1970 to protect British ‘sovereignty’ over oil resources. A blockade was imposed on Biafra and the images of children with famine-induced distended bellies became ubiquitous. As one child victim reported, as an adult: “I saw hunger. I saw thousands of people and bodies littered everywhere and smelling while vultures feasted every day. I saw houses destroyed; I saw families scattered such that until the end of the world, they can never gather themselves together again.”

Yemen 2015 – 2026: The British are part of the blockade alliance that is starving the entire Yemeni population for daring to envisage a future without the spectre of colonialism.

During the UNHRC [Human Rights Council], 31st Session in Geneva March 2016, Mohammed al Wazir, Yemeni-American Lawyer and Director of Arabian Rights Watch Association testified that:

“UN Security Council Resolution 2216 is about an arms embargo on 5 people, yet its being used as a cover to justify a blockade on 27 million Yemenis. According to the 2016 Humanitarian Needs Overview released in November 2015, 21.2 million people making up 82% of the population are now in need of some form of Humanitarian assistance. Nearly 2.1 million people are currently estimated to be malnourished, including more than 1. 3 million children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.”

The list of vicious crimes against humanity and Global Britain’s holding the world to ransom over food or weaponising hunger to subjugate the disenfranchised and vulnerable peoples of this world will not be consigned to history. It will not be forgotten. Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and now Iran — the impact of this legacy of barbarism will not end there. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz means that the essential components of fertiliser — urea, ammonia, phosphates, sulphur — are being forcibly removed from agricultural supply chains.

Western populations will start to see food shortages and sky-rocketing prices. They will experience food insecurity, just as their colonialist regimes have forced it upon the Global South for more than a century. According to the United Nations World Food Program, the “total number of people around the world facing acute levels of hunger [an additional 45 million] could reach record numbers”. Do we trust our regime, Global Britain, to alleviate the dire consequences of their own criminal and predatory foreign policies?

The hypocrisy of successive British regimes using the accusation of ‘starvation’ against sovereign peoples and nations trying to survive an onslaught of destabilisation, depopulation, and resource-theft operations at the hands of their accusers should never be allowed to gather traction. Before we point the finger beyond our borders, we must first bear responsibility for the crimes of our own destructive imperialist history.

It is no longer enough to say ‘not in our name’ — we have lived too long in the shadow of abrogation.

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Image: Mona Relief 1/4/2016: Bani Quis, Hajjah, Northern Yemen on border with Saudi Arabia.

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