Category Archives: Aid

Famine in Gaza is being made ‘inevitable’ says UN rapporteur

Posted on by

Countries defunding UNRWA, the main aid distributer in Gaza, accused of collectively punishing more than 2.2 million Palestinians

The Gaza Strip is facing “inevitable famine” because of the decision by western countries to pause funding for the UN’s agency for Palestinian affairs after Israeli accusations that 12 of the group’s employees took part in the Hamas attack on 7 October last year.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, said on Sunday “famine was imminent” and now “inevitable”, in a comment following the news that the US and nine other countries were suspending additional funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

Continue reading...

UN staff on £1.5bn Iraq aid project ‘demanding bribes’

Posted on by

Exclusive: whistleblowers allege large sums are being lost to corruption in Iraq as donors fail to track spending on postwar reconstruction

Staff working for the UN in Iraq are allegedly demanding bribes in return for helping businessmen win contracts on postwar reconstruction projects in the country, a Guardian investigation has found.

The alleged kickbacks are one of a number of claims of corruption and mismanagement the Guardian has uncovered in the Funding Facility for Stabilization, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scheme launched in 2015 and backed by $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in support so far from 30 donors, including the UK.

Continue reading...

Food aid failing to reach Gaza residents despite ‘catastrophic’ hunger crisis

Posted on by

People vent their frustration on social media as many given just beans and biscuits to eat, and donated food is found for sale in markets

A couple of biscuits and a can of beans is all that many Palestinians in Gaza say is being given to families to live on, if they receive aid at all, and that they are finding donated items for sale in the markets.

The risk of famine is increasing every day, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said this week that Gaza’s entire population is suffering “catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity”, the highest proportion of a population with acute food insecurity the monitor has ever recorded.

Continue reading...

Israel says it will open new aid crossing into Gaza Strip

Posted on by

Announcement follows pressure from allies in US to alleviate humanitarian crisis in besieged territory

Israel has said it will open a new aid crossing into the Gaza Strip in the face of pressure from allies in Washington to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory and wind down its wide-scale bombings and armoured ground operations against Hamas.

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, previously used for goods and aid deliveries, would reopen to process humanitarian supplies, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday.

Continue reading...

Nepal earthquake survivors dying in tents as temperatures plunge

Posted on by

At least 38 people, including a new mother, have died in the month after the earthquake struck, among 40,000 people living under tarpaulin

At least 38 people who survived an earthquake in Nepal have died after spending more than a month living in tents in freezing temperatures. Among the dead is a woman who gave birth two days after the earthquake struck the west of the country on 3 November.

More than 40,000 people are now living under sheets of tarpaulin, according to the directorate of health for Karnali province.

Continue reading...

UN says Gaza near ‘full-blown collapse’ as US vetoes ceasefire call

Posted on by

UN officials including secretary general describe humanitarian breakdown in territory as they plead for immediate ceasefire

The UN is at “breaking point” in Gaza, its most senior official has warned, as his colleagues described the “untenable” humanitarian catastrophe in the territory, with 700 people sharing a single toilet and people burning plastic to keep warm.

One official said UN agencies were “barely operational” and staff were bringing their children to work “so they know they are safe or can die together”.

Continue reading...

Hunger crisis threatens Chad as funding for food aid falters

Posted on by

World Food Programme warns it will stop helping to feed 1.4 million people including refugees from Darfur as global demand for assistance increases

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that food aid for 1.4 million people in Chad faces a “looming halt” because there is no money, even as the country is experiencing an influx of refugees from the fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Funding shortfalls and increasing humanitarian needs mean WFP will have to pause food for millions of displaced people and refugees in Nigeria, Central African Republic and Cameroon from December, the agency said.

Continue reading...

UK white paper raises concerns over China’s growing foreign aid role

Posted on by

Government paper says Britain must act robustly if interests challenged by the Chinese development model

China’s growing role in international development marks a systemic global shift that will require robust challenge by Britain if its interests are threatened, a UK government white paper on aid has warned.

With David Cameron starting as foreign secretary and under scrutiny for his previous business links with China, the document does not hold back in challenging the Chinese development model or its growing influence.

Continue reading...

Aid charities urge Rishi Sunak to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza

Posted on by

PM’s speech at food summit comes as humanitarian crisis caused by Israel-Hamas war reaches crisis point

Leaders of some of Britain’s biggest aid charities are urging Rishi Sunak to use his opening speech at a global food summit in London on Monday to condemn Israel’s siege in Gaza, which they say is causing 2 million people to go hungry and taking 1 million children to the brink of starvation.

The charities, including Oxfam, Christian Aid, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Islamic Relief, say the UK has an obligation to speak out at the summit since private diplomacy is not working and Britain is the guardian of the key UN resolution that forbids starvation as a “weapon of war”.

Continue reading...

UN warns of Gaza starvation as concerns rise about safety in the south

Posted on by

Israeli military expansion seen as likely alongside acute shortages of of food and water

The UN has said Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations in parts of the south where people have sought refuge from fighting.

Fuel shortages on Friday halted aid shipments and blacked out communications across the strip. The UN said its trucks could not move and it could not coordinate deliveries. Palestinian network operators said they could no longer power the phone and internet systems.

Continue reading...

Brexit to pints with Xi: why David Cameron is a controversial foreign secretary

Posted on by

As former UK PM makes a return to cabinet, we look at his somewhat chequered record on global stage

David Cameron has made a shock return to the UK government as foreign secretary.

A profile on the government’s website credits him with developing “a foreign policy that responded to the new challenges of the Arab spring and also evolving challenges from various state and non-state actors”.

Continue reading...

Gaza becoming ‘a graveyard for children’, says UN secretary general

Posted on by

António Guterres calls for more aid trucks to enter besieged territory and calls for end to ‘dead end of destruction’

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has warned that the Gaza Strip is becoming “a graveyard for children” as he called again for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow aid into the embattled territory.

The UN chief’s comments came on Monday after Gaza health authorities said the death toll had now exceeded 10,000 people and the heads of all the major UN humanitarian organisations made an unprecedented joint statement calling for a ceasefire.

Continue reading...

‘The children screamed for hours’: horrors of Hurricane Otis leave devastation for Acapulco’s poorest

Posted on by

Mexico’s Pacific coast was battered by 165mph winds and torrential rain on 25 October. Thousands lost their homes and many now have too little food or water to survive

In the small hours of Wednesday 25 October, Josefina Maldonado, a grandmother of two in her 60s who lives in the Renacimiento district of Acapulco, watched as the corrugated metal roof of her home flew into the sky, ripped off by 165mph (270km/h) winds. The family home and everything and everyone in it, including two terrified small children, were prey to the torrential rain and the horrors of the hurricane. Most of the furniture, including the beds, was swept away.

“It wasn’t that the wind or the water was stronger. Both were working together,” Maldonado says. “We were up all night trying to save what we could, and the children screamed and cried for hours.”

Continue reading...

Lack of clean drinking water for 95% of people in Gaza threatens health crisis

Posted on by

Polluted water supplies and salty groundwater are making people ill, with UN warning of threat of child deaths from dehydration

Palestinians who fled to southern Gaza, after warnings from Israel to leave their homes, are standing in line for hours to get contaminated water they believe is making them ill.

Long queues of people waiting to fill jerry cans are now ubiquitous across the territory as water becomes increasingly scarce, a result of restrictions on water and power imposed by Israel.

Continue reading...

UN warns Gaza aid operation will soon stop if fuel not let in

Posted on by

Crisis worsening by the hour, says UN agency, with Israel blocking supplies on grounds Hamas would use them

Relief efforts in Gaza will be forced to stop unless fuel supplies reach the besieged territory, the main UN agency working in the strip has warned.

Hospitals, bakeries and water pumps may also cease to function, compounding a humanitarian crisis that is worsening by the hour, the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said. “We need to find a solution to the fuel – otherwise our aid operation will come to a stop.”

Continue reading...

Girls in Africa quitting school over cost of living crisis, says charity

Posted on by

Camfed calls for six-year plan to get 6 million girls into school, warning that drop-out rate is limiting children’s chances

Governments and donors need to redouble efforts to encourage girls back to school across Africa after the cost of living crisis pushed many to spurn education for low-paid work or early marriage, a charity has warned.

Camfed, which operates in five African countries, said its partnership model proved this could be achieved and called for a six-year plan to get 6 million girls into school.

Continue reading...

Aid flights land in Egypt amid efforts to open safe corridors into Gaza

Posted on by

No agreement by Saturday night on how to bring aid to trapped Palestinians before Israel’s expected ground assault

Aid flights have been arriving in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula with relief supplies for Gaza, amid diplomatic efforts to open humanitarian corridors into the besieged Palestinian enclave.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said during a tour of the region that the US was seeking agreement on establishing aid routes and safe zones. But by Saturday night, there was still no agreement on how to bring aid to the 2 million Palestinians under bombardment, as Israel laid the ground for an invasion of Gaza a week after a Hamas attack in which 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals, mostly civilians, were murdered.

Continue reading...

EU aid to Palestinians will ‘not be cancelled’ as decision reversed

Posted on by

EU foreign ministers back continued support after European commissioner declared suspension of payments

EU foreign ministers have reversed the decision by the European Commission to suspend payments to the Palestinian Authority, after an emergency meeting in Oman.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, said the “overwhelming majority” of EU states were in favour of continued support, adding the funds would “not be cancelled”.

Continue reading...

EU appears to backpedal on freezing of Palestinian aid payments

Posted on by

Earlier announcement by Olivér Várhelyi had prompted surprise from member states including Ireland and Spain

The EU has been plunged into a diplomatic row after an announcement that it was to suspend “all payments” to Palestinians as a result of Hamas’s attacks on Israel led to clashes with several member states including Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands.

After six hours scrambling for an explanation, the European Commission appeared to backpedal on an announcement made by the commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, saying: “There will be no suspension of payments.” But it muddied the waters by saying there were “no payments foreseen”.

Continue reading...

Sudan conflict ‘like planning for the apocalypse’, say aid workers

Posted on by

At least 5.4 million people have been displaced by the fierce fighting that broke out in the country in April

Humanitarian officials say the widening conflict in Sudan has left them trying to “plan for the apocalypse” as aid supply lines are disrupted and more people are displaced both internally and across the country’s borders.

At least 5.4 million people have already been displaced by the fighting that broke out in April between between the Sudanese armed forces, led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces loyal to his rival Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – known as Hemedti.

Continue reading...