famine

Massive displacement and cross-border fighting are spilling over neighbouring countries, worsening the already catastrophic crisis.

Response to the alert issued last night, by the IPC’s Famine Review Committee, which warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza.

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today. 

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.

Representatives from Oxfam and leading humanitarian organisations will brief the press on the impact of Israel’s total siege on Gaza, which has lasted now more than 70 days, and Israel’s plan to control and limit aid distribution moving forward.  

The flight from conflict in Sudan with her family was a difficult journey. But in many ways, Shiama Ali’s challenges were just as hard after arriving in South Sudan. 

“Oxfam is deeply alarmed by the @theIPCinfo classification of famine in five areas of #Sudan. This is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises that remains tragically overlooked. The international community and conflict parties must act now to end the suffering and prevent further loss of life.”

Of the meagre 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians. For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours.  

Israel is in the late stages of ethnic cleansing of the North Gaza governorate, Oxfam says. For fifty days, Israel has prevented Oxfam, its partners, and other humanitarian agencies from delivering life-saving aid to thousands of starving people in north Gaza.

Reacting to the GRFC 2024 report, Oxfam Global Food and Economic Security Lead, Emily Farr, said: “The global hunger crisis is fundamentally a moral crisis. It is unforgivable that over 281 million people are suffering acute hunger while the world’s richest continue to make extraordinary profits, including the same aerospace and defence corporations helping to fuel conflict, the main driver of hunger.