conflict

As the international community gathers in New York this week for the Horn of Africa High Level Pledging Conference, we urge global donors to address the impact of the climate injustice taking place in the region by making the financial pledges required to fully fund the humanitarian response and help address immediate and long-term needs across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where millions of people are trapped in a devastating cycle of hunger and displacement.

Over 60 activists, social movements, and women food producers that have gathered in Maputo,
Mozambique for Women Food Convening 2023 conference say that the current global food
system is exploitative, broken, unjust, marginalises women and exacerbates gender inequalities
and hunger particularly in low-income countries.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) figures for Somalia, shows that Somalia remains on the brink of famine. 5.6 million people are now in crisis or worse levels of food insecurity and this is expected to rise to 6.4 million by March 2023, and 8.3 million by June 2023. By June 2023, the number of people in catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5) is expected to double to 727,000.

After enduring more than seven years of brutal conflict the people of Yemen have finally had the opportunity to experience what it means to feel hopeful. An unprecedented truce, now in its sixth month, brings with it the possibility for longer-term peace and the chance to rebuild lives and livelihoods. But while the conflict has slowed, humanitarian needs continue to increase, and the humanitarian response remains under and unequally funded. 

On this World Humanitarian Day, Oxfam and the Global Protection Cluster join the humanitarian community in celebrating frontline humanitarian leaders working to protect the lives and rights of people living through crises. 

Across Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, and Afar regions, communities already reeling from 18 months of conflict, will be welcoming, but also bracing for the rains that often bring heightened risk of water-borne diseases and hamper humanitarian aid, warns Oxfam today.
 

In response to the news that the humanitarian truce in Yemen has been extended for another two months, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen Ferran Puig said: “We welcome the news that all parties have reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian truce in Yemen. It’s a hopeful sign that we can move towards a sustainable peace resolution to a conflict that has brought so much death and suffering to the Yemeni people."

Oxfam is horrified by the loss of life being witnessed, and gravely concerned by the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine.  We call for an immediate end to hostilities.

Figures released today show licences worth at least £42.6 million were issued for arms exports to Saudi Arabia between July and September last year, many of which will be used in the war in Yemen. Since the conflict escalated, nearly seven years ago, over four million people have been forced from their homes with over 19,000 civilian casualties. 

Oxfam said today that it cannot reach around 450,000 or more people in Gaza because of fighting and aerial bombardment. Oxfam staff are trying to resume their humanitarian and livelihood programmes with its network of partners but the destruction and indiscriminate threat to life make any emergency aid, at the moment, impossible to mount. The international agency should be providing food, clean water, sanitation and child protection support but the bombing is making it too dangerous for anyone to leave their homes.