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Famine
Famine has been mostly averted in Gaza as a surge of aid enters the territory during a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday. But he warned the threat could return quickly if the truce collapses. Tom Fletcher spoke exclusively to The Associated Press after a two-day visit to Gaza, where hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived each day since the ceasefire began on January 19. The threat of famine, I think, is largely averted, Fletcher said in Cairo. Those starvation levels are down from where they were before the ceasefire. He spoke as concerns grow over whether the ceasefire can be extended and talks are meant to begin on its more difficult second phase. The six-week first phase is halfway through. As part of the agreement, Israel said it would allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza each day, a major increase after months of aid officials expressing frustration about delays and insecurity hampering both the entry and distribution of food, ..
Severe food crises threaten hundreds of thousands of people in vulnerable areas, including the Palestinian territories, Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali, where populations face or near famine, says a report by the United Nations' food agencies released on Thursday. Conflicts, economic instability, and climate shocks -- combined with reduced funding for emergency food and agriculture assistance -- are driving alarming levels of acute food insecurity, the report warned. Immediate, scaled-up intervention is needed to prevent further deterioration in these already vulnerable regions, it added. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme said acute food insecurity is projected to worsen across 16 hunger hotspots during the next six months in 14 countries and two regions. Sudan, South Sudan, Haiti, Mali and the Palestinian territories remain at the highest concern level, the report said. Chad, Lebanon, Myanmar, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Syrian Arab Republic a
An influx of aid appears to have eased a hunger crisis in northern Gaza for now, but the entire territory remains at high risk of famine after Israel's offensive in Rafah caused displacement and the disruption of aid operations in the south, a draft report said Monday. The report by the leading international authority on the severity of hunger crises said nearly everyone in Gaza is struggling to get enough food and that more than 495,000 people, or greater than a fifth of the population of 2.3 million, are expected to experience the highest level of starvation in the coming months. That's despite months of US pressure on Israel to do more to facilitate aid efforts, the installation of a $230 million US-built pier that has been beset by problems and repeated airdrops by multiple countries that aid agencies say are insufficient to meet vital needs. Israel invaded Gaza after Hamas' attack on Oct 7, in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducte
The Sudanese people are trapped in an inferno of brutal violence with famine, disease and fighting closing in and no end in sight, the top UN humanitarian official in the war-ravaged country said on Wednesday. Clementine Nkweta-Salami told a UN press conference that horrific atrocities are being committed with reckless abandon, reports of rape, torture and ethnically motivated violence are streaming in", communities and families have been torn apart, and almost 9 million people have been forced to flee their homes in what is now the world's largest displacement crisis. Earlier this month, the UN food agency warned Sudan's warring parties that there is a serious risk of widespread starvation and death in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan if they don't allow humanitarian aid into the vast western region a view echoed Wednesday by Nkweta-Salami. Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the ...
Nearly 282 million people in 59 countries suffered from acute hunger in 2023, with war-torn Gaza as the territory with the largest number of people facing famine, according to the Global Report on Food Crises released on Wednesday. The UN report said 24 million more people faced an acute lack of food than in 2022, due to the sharp deterioration in food security, especially in the Gaza Strip and Sudan. The number of nations with food crises that are monitored has also been expanded. Mximo Torero, chief economist for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, said 705,000 people in five countries are at Phase 5, the highest level, on a scale of hunger determined by international experts the highest number since the global report began in 2016 and quadruple the number that year. Over 80 per cent of those facing imminent famine 577,000 people were in Gaza, he said. South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Somalia and Mali each host many thousands also facing catastrophic hunger. According to th
The UN food agency said Monday that famine is imminent in northern Gaza, where 70% of the remaining population is experiencing catastrophic hunger, and that a further escalation of the war could push around half of Gaza's total population to the brink of starvation. The alarming report came as Israel faces mounting pressure from even its closest allies to streamline the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip and open more crossings. The European Union's top diplomat said the impending famine was entirely man-made as "starvation is used as a weapon of war. Israeli forces meanwhile launched another raid on the Gaza Strip's largest hospital early Monday, saying Hamas militants had regrouped there and had fired on them from inside the compound, where Palestinian officials say tens of thousands of people have been sheltering. The military said it killed a Hamas commander who was armed and hiding inside the medical centre, and that one of its own soldiers was killed in the operation. The army
After months of warnings over the risk of famine in Gaza under Israel's bombardment, offensives and siege, children are starting to die. Hunger is most acute in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by Israeli forces and has suffered long cutoffs of food supply deliveries. At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north's Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Health Ministry. Most of the dead are children including ones as old as 15 as well as a 72-year-old man. Particularly vulnerable children are also beginning to succumb in the south, where access to aid is more regular. At the Emirati Hospital in Rafah, 16 premature babies have died of malnutrition-related causes over the past five weeks, one of the senior doctors told The Associated Press. The child deaths we feared are here, Adele Khodr, UNICEF's Middle East chief, said in a statement earlier this week. Malnutrition is generally slow to bring death, striking children and the elderly
At least one quarter of Gaza's population 576,000 people are one step away from famine and virtually the entire population desperately needs food resulting in aid trucks being shot at, looted and overwhelmed by hungry people, top UN officials said on Tuesday. The officials from the UN humanitarian office and the UN's food and agriculture organisations painted a dire picture of all 2.3 million people in Gaza facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, and civil order breaking down especially in the north where food and other humanitarian supplies are scarce. And as grim as the picture is today, UN humanitarian coordinator Ramesh Ramasingham told the UN Security Council that there is every possibility for further deterioration. He said that in addition to a quarter of Gaza's population close to famine, 1 in 6 children under the age of two in northern Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting, where the body becomes emaciated. Carl Skau, deputy executive director
There's little doubt that North Korea's chronic food shortages worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and speculation about the country's chronic food insecurity has flared as its top leaders prepare to discuss the "very important and urgent task" of formulating a correct agricultural policy. Unconfirmed reports say an unspecified number of North Koreans have been dying of hunger. But experts say there is no sign of mass deaths or famine. They say the upcoming ruling Workers' Party meeting is likely intended to shore up support for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as he pushes ahead with his nuclear weapons program in defiance of intense US-led pressure and sanctions. "Kim Jong Un can't advance his nuclear program stably if he fails to resolve the food problem fundamentally because public support would be shaken," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. "The meeting is being convened to solidify internal unity while pulling
The UN humanitarian chief has predicted that at least USD 1 billion will be needed urgently to avert famine in Somalia in the coming months and early next year when two more dry seasons are expected to compound the historic drought that has hit the Horn of Africa nation. Martin Griffiths said in a video briefing from Somalia's capital Mogadishu that a new report from an authoritative panel of independent experts says there will be a famine in Somalia between October and December if we don't manage to stave it off and avoid it as had been the case in 2016 and 2017. The undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs told UN correspondents that more than USD 1 billion in new funds is needed in addition to the UN appeal of about USD 1.4 billion. That appeal has been very well-funded, he said, thanks to the US Agency for International Development, which announced a USD 476 million donation of humanitarian and development aid in July. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, created by
Warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine, the U.N. humanitarian chief on Monday urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter as the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay. Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces multiple crises -- humanitarian, economic, climate, hunger and financial. Conflict, poverty, climate shocks and food insecurity have long been a sad reality in Afghanistan, but he said what makes the current situation so critical is the halt to large-scale development aid since the Taliban takeover a year ago. More than half the Afghan population -- some 24 million people -- need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, Griffiths said. And we worry that the figures will soon become worse because winter weather will send already high fuel and food ..