According to Business Insider, soldiers fighting in the various bloody conflicts in the Middle East today are using food as a weapon. The result: millions of people from

Yemen to Syria and Iraq, are starving, and some cases dying from starvation.

Children have been hit the hardest. Without basic nutrition children succumb more readily to malnutrition. Their parents are forced to sell their possessions to get the most basic commodities such as water, medicine and fuel, just to keep alive.

The worst country is Syria, where a civil war has already devastated the country for five years. Estimates are that half the population of Syria has been displaced while a quarter of a million have perished. All the belligerents in the conflict have used blockades to force submission and surrender.

Humanitarian workers have recently arrived at one Syrian town witnessing scenes that “haunt the soul,” according to Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He pointed his finger at President Bashar Assad of Syria as well as at the rebels for using food as a weapon, saying starving the population on purpose is a war crime.