Press releases

As donors convene in Geneva, Oxfam and over 50 NGOs call for an urgent and substantial step-up in funding and leadership to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe facing millions in the Horn of Africa due to the severe drought, warning that further delays will cost lives.  

Oxfam warned today that millions of people in East and Central Africa, already suffering due to flooding and the impact of coronavirus, are at risk of increased hunger and poverty as the region braces for the latest generation of locusts which are due to hatch in June ―just when crops are to be harvested.

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.

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 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.

More than 52 million people in 18 countries across southern, eastern and central Africa are facing up to crisis levels of hunger as a result of weather extremes, compounded by poverty and conflict.

More than 15 million people are in need of aid as drought hits parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia again.

Responding to reports that around 20 countries have committed to stop financing overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of 2022, Oxfam's climate policy lead Nafkote Dabi said: "This is an encouraging move that will divert much-needed resources to clean energy and help countries to develop in a low carbon way. Energy is vital to economic and social development, burning fossil fuels is not. This is the only way we can meet the collective goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C."

Europe currently wastes land the size of Ireland on crops for biofuels which is an obstacle to tackling the climate crisis and food security, a new study shows. The study commissioned by T&E shows that this land could be used to feed 120 million people or, if given back to nature, could absorb twice as much CO2 as is supposedly saved by powering cars with biofuels. Using an area equivalent to just 2.5% of this land for solar panels would produce the same amount of energy.

Today, the European Parliament voted on its position on a carbon border tariff for companies exporting to the EU (the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism). In response, Chiara Putaturo, Oxfam EU Tax expert, said: “Forcing the poorest countries to pay this tariff is unfair. Europeans are responsible for double the carbon emissions as those in the poorest half of the world since 1990. This decision allows rich countries to pass the buck to those least responsible for the climate crisis.