food security

The coronavirus pandemic will have devastating health, social and economic impacts in the world’s poorest countries. To measure up to this once-in-a-century crisis, save lives and build a better future, donors must urgently and massively increase international aid funds.

Hundreds of thousands of people who have fled their homes in the Ituri province of the Democratic Republic of Congo are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medicines, 11 aid agencies warned today.

New figures released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) show that the number of hungry people has risen for the third year in a row, mainly as a result of conflict and the climate crisis. However, despite the spiralling hunger and two global food price crises in a little over ten years, hunger has fallen off the political agenda.

Africa's Sahel region currently faces the world’s fastest rise in food insecurity – with an increase of more than 13 million people over the last 11 years.

This briefing calls for action by all actors in the conflict and by the international community to protect the civilian population from the effects of the war and to alleviate the food crisis. It calls for renewed momentum towards a peace deal which is inclusive of women, civil society, youth and minorities, and which begins with an immediate, nationwide ceasefire.

European energy ministers meeting in Brussels today agreed European drivers should be obliged to burn massive quantities of food crops in their fuel tanks until 2030. Anti-poverty organisation Oxfam and green group Transport & Environment (T&E) deplored this policy that would only benefit the biofuels industry and contribute to hunger and environmental damage.

The devastation caused by Boko Haram and the military forces fighting them has plunged the people of far eastern Niger into a serious food crisis and has slashed their incomes to a tenth of what they were before.

As part of its emergency response in Diffa, Oxfam in Niger undertook a modified Emergency Market Mapping Analysis in November 2016. The broad aim was to understand the effect of the Boko Haram conflict and the military operations to counter them on the critical livelihood activities of conflict-affected people.

Although the El Niño weather event has ended, the humanitarian needs resulting from the drought in Southern Africa remain huge, and are still deepening.