Category Archives: Famine

Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds

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Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows

More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.

More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found.

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2 million at risk of starvation in Myanmar state amid ‘total economic collapse’

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Exclusive: a UN report will accuse the military of imposing ‘collective punishment’ on Rakhine state, more than three years after seizing power in a coup

Two million people in Myanmar’s Rakhine state could face starvation within months because fierce conflict and trade blockades have led to a “total economic collapse” and the imminent risk of famine, a senior UN official has warned.

Rakhine state, which borders Bangladesh in the west, is on the brink of disaster, as people’s incomes crater, rice cultivation plummets, and military-imposed trade restrictions lead to severe food shortages and hyperinflation, according to forthcoming research from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which accuses the military of inflicting “collective punishment” on civilians.

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Hunger in Lebanon could soar amid Israeli onslaught, UN expert warns

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Michael Fakhri, special rapporteur on right to food, warns Israeli military attack risks repeat of starvation seen in Gaza

Hunger and malnutrition rates could rise “exponentially” in Lebanon, if Israel follows through with threats to escalate the current military operation which has so far killed more than 2,000 and displaced as many as a million people, according to a leading UN expert.

“Israel has the ability to starve Lebanon – like it has starved Palestinians in Gaza,” said Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food. “If you look at the geography of Lebanon, Israel has the power to absolutely put a stranglehold on the food system. There is a huge risk of hunger and malnutrition rates skyrocketing very quickly in Lebanon.”

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Sudanese factions using starvation as weapon is ‘cowardice’, US envoy says

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Tom Perriello condemns tactics of Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese military before peace talks in Geneva

The US special envoy for Sudan has accused the two factions in the country’s civil war of “cowardice” before crucial peace talks that are due to start on Wednesday.

Tom Perriello told the Guardian that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military “lacked courage and honour” because of their continued use of starvation as a weapon.

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Children ‘at death’s door’ as famine declared in Sudanese refugee camp

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UN-backed early warning network confirms people in the Darfur city of El Fasher are starving to death

Famine has been declared in a Sudanese displacement camp in the besieged city of El Fasher.

About 600,000 people are estimated to be living in camps just outside the capital of North Darfur.

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Child malnutrition crisis in Nigeria amid rural violence and soaring food inflation

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MSF says it is overwhelmed in country where 31.8 million people are suffering from hunger

An unprecedented number of children in northern Nigeria are suffering from acute malnutrition, aid workers in the country have said.

Nigeria has the “largest number of food insecure people globally” at 31.8 million, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization office in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri said.

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Sudan on precipice of famine ‘beyond imagination’, says outgoing UN aid chief

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Man-made crises in Gaza and Sudan leaving millions of people at risk, says retiring British diplomat Martin Griffiths

Sudan is facing horror “beyond imagination”, the outgoing UN aid chief has warned, with 750,000 people under imminent threat of famine and with conditions in danger of worsening even further.

The British diplomat Martin Griffiths will retire from his job as the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs at a time when famine on a historic scale is looming over Sudan and Gaza.

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Sudan’s warring factions using starvation as weapon, experts say

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Special rapporteurs working for UN warn famine is imminent and over 25 million people need urgent help

Human rights experts working for the United Nations have accused Sudan’s warring parties of using starvation as a war weapon, amid mounting warnings of imminent famine in the African country.

Sudan plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the country’s military and a notorious paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.

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‘We need the world to wake up’: Sudan facing world’s deadliest famine in 40 years

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Millions face disaster as Sudanese army and RSF accused of using food access as a weapon in on-going war

Sudan is facing a famine that could become worse than any the world has seen since Ethiopia 40 years ago, US officials have warned, as aid deliveries continue to be blocked by the warring armies but arms supplies to both sides continue to flow in.

With much of the world’s attention focused on Gaza, the scene of another human-made famine, Sudan is already the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and is slipping towards a humanitarian disaster of historic proportions, with far less media coverage and global concern. A UN humanitarian appeal for the country has received only 16% of the funds it needs.

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Starvation already causing many deaths and lasting harm in Gaza, agencies say

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Extreme hunger taking huge toll, say food security reports, regardless of delays to possible declaration of famine

Months of extreme hunger have already killed many Palestinians in Gaza and caused permanent damage to children through malnutrition, two new food security reports have found, even before famine is officially declared.

The US-based famine early warning system network (Fews Net) said it was “possible, if not likely” that famine began in northern Gaza in April. Two UN organisations said more than 1 million people were “expected to face death and starvation” by mid-July.

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Children die of malnutrition as Rafah operation heightens threat of famine in Gaza

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Arrival of Israeli troops in the southern border town has choked aid supplies, as hunger deepens in southern Gaza

Fayiz Abu Ataya was born into war and knew nothing else. Over his first and only spring, in a town stalked by hunger, he wasted away to a shadow of a child, skin stretched painfully over jutting bones.

In seven months of life, he had little time to make a mark beyond the family who loved him. But when his death from malnutrition was reported last week, it sounded a warning around the world about a rapidly deepening crisis in central and southern Gaza, triggered by the Israeli military operation in the southern town of Rafah.

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Israel still has no proof of Unrwa terrorist claims – but damage to aid agency is done

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Inquiry has not backed up allegations of ties to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which led to loss of $450m as people died in droves

Unsupported Israeli allegations about Unrwa links to terrorism led major donors to cut $450m in funding to the main humanitarian agency working in Gaza at a time when people there were dying in droves.

Three months later, the situation has only worsened with the onset of a human-made famine on top of the bombing, the collapse of healthcare, the lack of water and a rise in epidemics. And despite a rigorous inquiry by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, supported by three well-respected research institutes, there is still no evidence for the claim that significant numbers of Unrwa employees have Hamas or Islamic Jihad ties.

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‘Hell on Earth’: famine nears in northern Gaza despite Israeli aid pledges

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Doctors describe rise in infections and amputations among dangerously malnourished patients

Every morning, starving mothers arrive at the doors of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza desperately seeking baby formula. Many mothers of newborns are unable to breastfeed, the head of the hospital said, because they are so underfed.

Inside the hospital, where doctors are undergoing treatment for malnutrition alongside their patients, surgeons say they are carrying out increasing numbers of amputations owing to the effects of acute hunger.

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Famine is now probably present in Gaza, US says

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State department assessment comes after world’s top court ordered Israel to admit food aid into territory

Famine is already probably present in at least some areas of northern Gaza, while other areas are in danger of falling into conditions of starvation, the US state department said on Friday a day after the world’s top court ordered Israel to admit food aid into the territory.

“While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and centre but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas,” a state department official told Reuters.

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UN calls for humanitarian ceasefire amid urgent efforts to avoid Gaza famine

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António Guterres says Palestinian people ‘remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare’ as Israel stands accused of blocking aid

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, has again called for a humanitarian ceasefireduring a visit to Egypt’s border with Gaza amid urgent efforts to avert famine in the territory after more than five months of devastating war.

“Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,” Guterres said. “I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough.”

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World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip

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Findings come as UN secretary general calls on Israel to give unconditional access to Gaza for aid relief

Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned.

Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months.

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‘Man-made famine’ charge against Israel is backed by mounting body of evidence

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Prospect of Israel facing war crimes charges has moved closer after UN condemnation of Gaza aid restrictions

The accusation by the UN and other humanitarians that Israel may be committing a war crime by deliberately starving Gaza’s population is likely to significantly increase the prospect of legal culpability for the country, including at the international court of justice.

Amid reports that the Israel Defense Forces are hiring dozens of lawyers to defend against anticipated cases and legal challenges, the charge that Israel has triggered a “man-made famine” by deliberately obstructing the entry of aid into Gaza is backed by an increasing body of evidence.

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‘Catastrophic levels of hunger’ in Gaza mean famine is imminent, says aid coalition

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More than a million people are at risk, according to report, as Oxfam says Israeli authorities are blocking relief deliveries

Famine is imminent in northern Gaza with people suffering “catastrophic levels of hunger”, a coalition of aid groups has warned.

The situation was called “man-made starvation”, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a group that includes the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, said that 1.1 million people, half of Gaza’s population, faced famine.

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Charity hopes to send second food aid ship to Gaza in next few days

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Pallets with 50% more supplies than first boat, Open Arms, being loaded in Cyprus

The charity sending food aid to Gaza on a ship travelling across the Mediterranean from Cyprus is loading a second boat with supplies, which it hopes will set off in the coming days.

Pallets containing 300 tonnes of food aid – 50% more than the first shipment – are expected to be screened and loaded by the end of Thursday, but there is no indication yet when it will leave the port of Larnaca.

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One in five pregnant women in Gaza clinic are malnourished, doctors warn

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Women and children suffering acute malnutrition as territory faces ‘catastrophic conditions’, according to UN

One in five pregnant women treated at a central Gaza clinic are malnourished, doctors have warned, as fuel and medical supply shortages closed the last hospital operating in the north of the strip.

“Every day, we see women and children coming into our clinic suffering from acute malnutrition,” said Dr Maram, the lead physician for Project Hope.

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