Press releases

Oxfam today called for a package of nearly $160 billion in immediate debt cancellation and aid to fund a Global Public Health Plan and Emergency Response, to help prevent millions of deaths as a result of the Coronavirus. The five-point plan would enable poor countries to take action to prevent the spread of the disease and build the capacity of health systems to care for those affected.

Responding to the commitments made by the G20 today to combat the Coronavirus, Chema Vera, Oxfam International’s Interim Executive Director, said: “On the day that Imperial College London has warned that close to 40 million lives could be lost without urgent action, the world’s richest governments are still only warming up to the scale of the task.

Rather than protecting vulnerable people from the spread of the coronavirus, the Greek government is using the crisis to absolve itself from its obligations under international and EU law, said Oxfam.

Ahead of the virtual G20 Summit tomorrow, Chema Vera, Oxfam International’s Interim Executive Director, urged G20 leaders to act boldly and across borders to save millions of lives.

With a recent upsurge in fighting in Yemen, the forthcoming rainy season and tightening of borders due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, there’s no end in sight to the daily toll of death, disease and displacement five years after the conflict escalated, Oxfam warned today.

The European Union’s latest row with Turkey will aggravate what is already Europe’s worst humanitarian disaster, Oxfam and the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) said on the fourth anniversary of the EU-Turkey deal.

As the Syrian crisis enters its tenth year, four million Syrians in Idlib and northern Aleppo continue to suffer, simply awaiting the worst to happen, says Oxfam.  Many displaced Syrian across borders tell Oxfam how their lives have been disrupted and destroyed.

Tens of thousands of people across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are still suffering 12 months after Cyclone Idai battered Southern Africa, warned Oxfam today. Cyclone Idai, one of the worst cyclones to hit Africa, made landfall on 14th March 2019.

Yemen is suffering a forgotten cholera crisis, Oxfam said today, as it warned the number of people there with the disease could spiral as the country approaches rainy season in April and health systems are close to collapse.

The extreme actions taken by security forces against people seeking asylum and the recent violent attacks against workers for human rights and humanitarian organizations in Greece are an alarming development, said 256 organizations in a joint statement on Friday.

The proposed EU climate law is a good framework for EU climate action over the next decades, Oxfam says. The Commission, national governments and the European Parliament now must enact the law and take swift and decisive action to drastically reduce climate-heating emissions.

European Union member states should urgently relocate unaccompanied children from the Greek islands to safety in their territory, 65 human rights, humanitarian and civil society organisations said in a statement today.

Oxfam welcomes that Europe has begun developing prospects for a real and meaningful partnership with Africa. Ursula von der Leyen’s vision of a truly ‘geopolitical Commission’ must be grounded in European values and result in EU policies that actually work for people in Africa instead of making their situation worse.

A study initiated by the European Commission and released today says that new EU due diligence rules could significantly improve respect for human rights in the supply chains of European companies, says Oxfam.

In reaction to the formation of a new South Sudanese unity government today, Elysia Buchanan, Oxfam South Sudan’s Campaign Manager said: “We welcome this decision as an important first step in South Sudan’s journey towards sustainable peace, but it cannot be the last. The country’s leaders must now work together to urgently end the suffering of 7.5 million South Sudanese facing a dire humanitarian crisis.

The US and some European countries are seeking to water down historic global tax reforms warned Oxfam today, ahead of a meeting of G20 Finance Ministers and central bank governments in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia this weekend. G20 Ministers are expected to give the green light to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) outline proposals for tax reform at the meeting on 22 and 23 February.

Following the release of the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) report for South Sudan today, Elysia Buchanan, Oxfam South Sudan’s Campaign Manager said: “Despite some improvement, the scale of hunger in South Sudan is still immense with an estimated six million people facing severe hunger. The recent floods, which affected nearly a million people, are having a devastating impact on vulnerable communities already worn out by years of conflict and now the arrival of swarms of locusts could make things worse for many others.

Oxfam International Chair of the Board of Supervisors, Dr Henrietta Campbell, has announced that for personal reasons she is stepping down effective 31 March.

In response to the latest figures shared in OCHA's Burkina Faso Humanitarian Response Plan, Oxfam warns of the alarming deterioration of the humanitarian crisis and calls upon the international community to immediately mobilize funding to meet the urgently needed humanitarian support.  More than 1.9 million people in Burkina Faso are in dire need of water, sanitation and hygiene support.