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84 percent of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) COVID-19 loans encourage, and in some cases require, poor countries hard hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic to adopt more tough austerity measures in the aftermath of the health crisis, warned Oxfam today.

The threat of “COVID famines” and widespread extreme hunger are setting off every alarm bell within the international community, but so far sluggish funding of the UN's appeal is hampering humanitarian agencies’ efforts to deliver urgent assistance to people in need.

Oxfam's "Vetoing Humanity," studied 23 of the world’s most protracted conflicts over the past decade, and found that 27 of the 30 UNSC vetoes cast on these conflicts were on Palestine, Syria and Ukraine. Oxfam and partners are at UNGA 79 this year, to call for a wholesale reform of the UN Security Council that starts with abolishing the veto power of the "elite club" - five permanent members China, France, Russia, UK and the US.

Two years since the escalation of war in 2022, Ukraine is struggling to support those who are most vulnerable across the country. In 2022, as a result of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell by almost 30%. With five million people internally displaced (IDP’s) , providing services for those in need is getting more complicated.  There is a shortage of housing for those whose homes were destroyed, and many people cannot support themselves.

The world must put people’s lives before politics if is to stand any chance of aiding people suffering from the famine in Somalia, a group of 20 aid agencies said today in an open letter. While aid is getting through in many areas, it is not at the scale needed.

Dirty industries are blocking the European Union from making more ambitious cuts to its greenhouse gas emissions while, at the same time, making millions in profits from existing environment policy, says a new report by international agency Oxfam.

2010 saw Europe missing their poverty targets and today Heads of State compounded this by failing to put new commitments on the table to achieve their 2015 aid targets and keep their promises to the world’s poorest people.

A coalition of 100 humanitarian and human rights organizations today called on John Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, to insist that protecting civilians be a top priority of the joint Congolese and Rwandan military operation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Israel’s eviction and demolition plans for 13 Palestinian villages in the Hebron Hills come as demolition and displacement rates have hit a three-year high, adding to the uncertainty about the future for Palestinians living in the Israeli-controlled Area C of the West Bank.

Yemen is on the brink of a catastrophic food crisis, seven aid agencies said today (23 May 2012) with 10 million people – 44 percent of the population – without enough food to eat.  The aid agencies warned that malnutrition rates recorded by the UN in some parts of the country were alarming, with one in three children severely malnourished.