Press releases

Reacting to the outcome of the International Humanitarian Conference for Sudan and its neighbours, held in Paris today, at which countries pledged a total of $2 billion – Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N’Zi Hassane said: “It is morally incomprehensible that Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan – among the world's most fragile states –bear the brunt of Sudan’s conflict while the richest nations slack.   

Income inequality is high or increasing in 60 percent (64 out of 106) of low- and middle-income countries receiving grants or loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, reveals new Oxfam analysis ahead of the 2024 Spring Meetings in Washington D.C. Countries with high levels of income inequality have Gini coefficients above 0.4, the warning level set by the United Nations.

“Keeping already insufficient aid at stagnating levels costs lives and is a moral failure. Again, rich countries have betrayed their promise to the world’s poorest people —a promise to end hunger, invest in life-saving public health systems, and expand education opportunities so nobody is left behind."

EU governments are losing out on a staggering 286.5 billion euros in revenue annually, equivalent to 33 million euros per hour, due to their failure to fairly tax Europe’s wealthiest. This amount, equivalent to Finland’s GDP, represents what a European wealth tax of up to 5 percent could raise every year, according to Oxfam’s analysis. 

In response to the decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Grand Chamber’s first-ever climate-related cases (Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, Duarte Agostinho and Others v. Portugal and Others, and Carême v. France), Evelien van Roemburg, Head of Oxfam’s European Union office said: “European judges have ruled that a government’s failure to do enough to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions violates its population’s human rights. This is a positive step and allows people to require their governments to put in place effective climate regulations and carbon budgets. But the judges did not challenge Switzerland’s decision to give itself almost three more decades to reach net zero emissions, even though people around the world are being harmed now by the climate crisis.”   
 

Responding to the announcement by the Israeli government that Erez Crossing and Ashdod Port will now allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam Middle East and North Africa Director said: "Israel’s announced opening of the Erez crossing and use of Ashdod port for humanitarian aid are welcome but long overdue and insufficient steps to meet the immense needs of Palestinians in Gaza, who have been under siege and bombardment for six months."

More than two years on from the escalation of the war in Ukraine, women and girls’ humanitarian needs remain unmet. The gendered impacts of the war are being overlooked, pre-existing gender-based inequalities are being exacerbated and Women’s Rights and Women-Led Organizations (WROs/WLOs) are being largely excluded from the humanitarian coordination, decision making and funding systems in Ukraine. 

People in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day - less than a can of fava beans - since January, as Israeli forces continue their military onslaught. Over 300,000 people are believed to still be trapped there, unable to leave. 

Millions of people across Southern Africa, are grappling with the dual crises of hunger and flooding. Over half of Malawi’s 19 million population, six million people in Zambia, over three million in Zimbabwe, and three million more in Mozambique are facing hunger. Meanwhile, in Mozambique’s capital Maputo, floods wreaked havoc due to persistent heavy downpours that affected more than 50,000 people, barely two weeks after Tropical Storm Filipo hit parts of the country. 

As Yemen enters its tenth year of war, its people face renewed airstrikes and a deepening economic crisis that risks pushing millions into starvation, Oxfam has warned today.  

In response to the UN Security Council’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Oxfam’s UN Representative and Head of New York Office Brenda Mofya said: "We welcome the Security Council’s adoption of a ceasefire resolution so Palestinians in Gaza can have much-needed respite from the relentless and devastating Israeli violence and critical aid can reach them.  However, this resolution, while a step in the right direction, falls short of the permanent ceasefire which is truly required and comes too late for the over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza that have been killed, and thousands more unaccounted for, while the Security Council wrung its hands over semantics."

In reaction to today’s Russian attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kryvyi Rih, and Vinnytsia regions, which have left thousands of people without electricity or water, and caused disruptions to transport and communications, Sarah Redd – Oxfam’s Advocacy Campaigns and Engagement Manager for the Ukraine Response - said: 

Only 28 percent of the world’s most influential food and agriculture corporations report they are reducing their water withdrawals and just 23 percent say they are taking action to reduce water pollution. Oxfam’s new analysis of 350 corporations using World Benchmarking Alliance data comes ahead of World Water Day (March 22). 

In reaction to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published today on Gaza stating that famine is imminent in Northern Gaza and, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, said: “This new report shows that the catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation in Gaza are the highest ever recorded. 

Israeli authorities have rejected a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators and Oxfam water and sanitation gear all of which is now stockpiled at Al Arish just 40 km away from the border of 2.3 million desperate Palestinians in Gaza. In a new report today, Oxfam said this rejected aid was just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts. 

Today, EU countries rubber-stamped the deal on the EU’s new supply chain rules. This law — the Corporate Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — aims to make companies accountable for the damage they cause to people and the planet. 

Oxfam Denmark, Amnesty International Denmark, Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke (Action Aid Denmark) and the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq are suing the Danish National Police and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop Danish arms exports to Israel.

Tropical storm Filipo has hit Mozambique today, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of humanitarian support. The storm, which made landfall in Inhambane province in Mozambique, comes just a year after Cyclone Freddy ravaged several parts of Mozambique and Malawi, and left millions of people without food, water or shelter, said Oxfam today. 

Oxfam warns that over six million people from farming families in Zambia are facing acute food shortages and malnutrition until next growing season, which is twelve months away, due to a severe drought, exacerbated by climate change and El Nino, which has caused massive crop failures for half of the nation’s “planted area”. 

NGOs call for the UN Security Council to urgently convene and pass a Resolution demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire following yesterday’s UN Security Council meeting on the risk of conflict-induced famine in Gaza.