Food aid is offloaded from a United Nations helicopter in south Sudan, 2009.

It's hard to believe that we sometimes actually create famine. According to the International Famine Center, famine is often used as a “weapon of war.” Instead of being killed with guns, people are killed by starvation.

This happened with the war in Sudan, Africa, which started in 1983 and lasted more than 20 years. The government of northern Sudan was fighting with the rebels of southern Sudan. Both sides purposely destroyed farmers’ crops, so there would be no food for their “enemies.” It was ordinary people who suffered the most. Their food was gone. Those who could travel tried to get to where there was food, but the fighting had damaged bridges and roads.

To help the Sudanese, other countries sent food by plane or helicopter. The northern government decided to stop planes from landing in southern Sudan, because it believed that the food would help the rebels. Approximately 1.5 million people died during the Sudanese civil war, mostly from starvation.