Press releases

In reaction to the recent strikes on Jawf governorate, northern Yemen, which killed 31 and injured 12 civilians on 15 February, Oxfam and ten international aid organizations expressed their shock and deep condemnation of these military escalations.

Panama, the Cayman Islands and the Seychelles have rightly been added to the EU tax haven blacklist. However, the list still proves inadequate, said Oxfam today.

While we are encouraged by the Chair statements and the Summit deliberations, Oxfam believes that African leaders have let African women down, in their effort to end the conflict and find a peaceful resolution to years of brutality and violence that ripped the continent.

Locust infestations have just hit two new districts in northern Uganda as they continue to plague Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, and threaten Sudan and South Sudan. There are also reports of the swarms now in Tanzania. Oxfam is ramping up response.

Oxfam International’s Board of Supervisors formally approved Kadin Emegini Degerlendirme Vakfi (KEDV) as its 20th and newest affiliate member on Dec 4. KEDV has been an Oxfam observer member since November 2017.

In response to the proposals from the Greek government to install floating barriers in the sea to deter migrants and refugees, Evelien van Roemburg, Oxfam's Europe Migration Campaign manager, said:

"This is an extremely worrying development that would be a violation of the basic human right for people to seek protection and put even more lives at risk.

"People would be forced to make more dangerous crossings through deep and treacherous waters.


 

EU development aid is increasingly being spent to close borders, stifle migration and push for returns of migrants to Africa, reveals new research published by Oxfam.

Oxfam's new research - Our Search for Peace: Women in South Sudan’s National Peace Processes” - highlights the under-recognized but crucial role South Sudanese women played in the country's most recent national-level peace processes. With less than a month until the country forms a transitional government, South Sudanese women are demanding more leadership roles at all levels of decision making.

The Trump administration’s plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict disregards international law and diminishes prospects for a just and lasting peace, said the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam today. 

Oxfam is preparing for a potential response as swarms of locusts sweep across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia and are likely to grow 500 times bigger by June to neighboring Uganda and South Sudan. The plagues are hitting the East African region where food insecurity has already reached record levels.

In response to the release of the Trump administration’s Israeli-Palestinian “Peace Plan,” Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America’s Humanitarian Policy Lead said, “The Trump administration’s proposal isn’t a peace deal - it’s a roadmap to permanent occupation. By legitimizing ongoing rights violations and entrenching existing political divisions, it further dims the prospects for peace. It also undermines any remaining hopes for the United States to serve as a credible broker between Israelis and Palestinians in the future. Oxfam calls on Members of Congress and Presidential candidates to swiftly and adamantly reject this proposal.

Responding to President Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos today, Amitabh Behar, Oxfam's representative at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, said: “Don't be fooled by President Trump's glowing self-review.  This was a speech for the billionaires that the President's agenda has propped up at the expense of millions of ordinary Americans."

The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 percent of the planet’s population, reveals a new report from Oxfam today ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

As the G5 leaders meet at the Sahel Summit in France on 13 January 2020 to discuss their military response to the Sahel conflict, Oxfam and partners warn of insufficient humanitarian aid and protection of civilians.

Oxfam’s humanitarian work in Iraq is restricted due to heightened security concerns, road checkpoints and travel difficulties, following Iranian missile attacks on US military bases in Iraq overnight in retaliation for the US killing of the Iranian General Suleimani.

A day after the devastation wrought by Typhoon Phanfone (local name: Ursula), which made seven landfalls mainly in Central Philippines between December 24 until the afternoon of December 25, development agency Oxfam and its partners say there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance.

On 22 December, at around 1am, Oxfam’s office in Al Dhale’e was hit by two RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades). One hit the roof, while the other hit the office gate. Neither of the guards on duty were injured and there were no other staff present. The offices of several other agencies in Al Dhale’e were also targeted at around the same time.

In reaction to recent developments at the UN Security Council regarding the cross-border resolution for Syria, Oxfam said:

“The UN Security Council failure to renew the cross-border resolution puts the lives of millions of Syrians at risk.  Families in great need, many of whom have been forced to flee multiple times during the crisis, rely on the aid provided by UN cross-border operations. Without the resolution renewal, there is no realistic way of reaching hundreds of thousands of these families caught in fire, which risks leaving them abandoned at a time of great need.  Members of the Security Council must urgently return to discussions and ensure that all people in need across Syria can get humanitarian assistance in the most effective way possible.”

In response to Israeli military forces destroying a Swedish-funded EUR 53.000 Palestinian water reservoir in Einnoun, east Tubas in the Occupied West Bank, Oxfam Country Director, Shane Stevenson said: “This community has been left devastated, not knowing when the army will return to destroy their final remaining sources of fresh water. 200 families are scared and intimidated by these type of military incursions, which systematically deny Palestinians their basic rights, including the right to water.”

The Global Refugee Forum ended today with refugees making sure that their message to be fully included in all decisions about their futures was heard by world leaders.

Despite real strides taken to include more refugees at the Forum, where they have been represented on high-level panels alongside governments, business leaders, and UN agencies, only 2% of the total 3000 participants were refugees. World leaders must do more to bring real change and uphold their pledges to the 25.9m refugees worldwide.