famine - The African Mirror

Jul

30

2024

Famine or not? Palestinians in Gaza say an official declaration is beside the point

WORLD

This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. By Mohamed Soulaimane al-Astal GOVERNMENTS and the UN have so far stopped short of declaring that a famine is taking place in the Gaza Strip. But for Palestinians in the enclave – and some food security experts – whether the deprivation and hunger they are experiencing meet the technical definition is beside the point. “No word better describes what we’re experiencing than ‘famine’,” Diana Harara, a 30-year-old mother of three, told The New Humanitarian by phone from Gaza City. “Firstly, we have nothing to eat but flour and canned food which…

Jul

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Sudan: Hunger forces more displacement as UN-hosted talks continue

NEWS

TIME is running out for starving civilians in Sudan, UN humanitarians warned, while talks involving the country’s warring parties continue in Geneva this week. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Sudan, Dr Shible Sahbani, told journalists that during his mission to neighbouring Chad last week, desperate refugees told him that “the main reason they left Sudan now is hunger, is famine”. “They said it’s not insecurity, it’s not lack of access to basic services, but because we have nothing to eat there,” he stressed. Speaking from Port Sudan, Dr Sahbani spoke of his shock when a woman who…

Jul

09

2024

By OLIVER KIPTOO KIRUI

Sudan food emergency: local researcher unpacks scale of the disaster and what action is needed

NEWS

THE UN recently warned of the risk of famine in Sudan. The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed civilians and devastated livelihoods on a massive scale. Around 18 million people are already acutely hungry, including 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished. Oliver Kiptoo Kirui, who co-authored the Sudan National Household Survey – conducted in the midst of war – provides insights on the scale of the country’s food emergency. What’s the food security situation in Sudan? Acute food security is measured on a widely accepted 5-stage classification. It increases in severity from “minimal”…

Jul

04

2024

By RAWH NASIR

‘We survive together’: The communal kitchens fighting famine in Khartoum

NEWS

By Rawh Nasir This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. COMMUNAL kitchens are assisting hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan’s embattled capital, Khartoum, providing regular meals as well as social and emotional support amid a deepening famine that international aid groups are failing to tackle.Run by neighbourhood-based mutual aid groups called emergency response rooms, the kitchens are struggling with crippling funding gaps, security threats, and communications and electricity blackouts, volunteers told The New Humanitarian.The wide-ranging challenges mean many kitchens only offer one meal per day, while some emergency response rooms have cut back to a single meal…

Jun

02

2024

By The African Mirror

Sudan at ‘imminent risk of famine’, UN aid chiefs warn

NEWS

THE people of Sudan are at "imminent risk of famine", United Nations agencies said, more than a year into a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Around 18 million people are already acutely hungry, including 3.6 million children who are acutely malnourished, according to a joint statement by U.N. chiefs including Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights "Time is running out for millions of people in Sudan who are at imminent risk of famine, displaced from their lands, living under bombardments, and cut off from humanitarian assistance," the statement added. Fighting broke…

Apr

17

2024

By ELIZABETH PINEAU and NAFISA ELTAHIR

Donors raise more than 2 billion euros for Sudan aid a year into war

NEWS

DONORS pledged more than 2 billion euros ($2.13 billion) for war-torn Sudan at a conference in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron said, on the first anniversary of what aid workers describe as a neglected but devastating conflict. Efforts to help millions of people driven to the verge of famine by the war have been held up by continued fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), restrictions imposed by the warring sides, and demands on donors from other global crises including in Gaza and Ukraine. Conflict in Sudan is threatening to expand, with fighting heating up in and around al-Fashir, a…

Mar

26

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

UN Security Council demands ceasefire amid Israeli airstrikes

WORLD

THE United Nations Security Council demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as Israeli forces carried out new airstrikes in Gaza and laid siege to two hospitals. After vetoing three earlier draft council resolutions on the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel's main ally, the United States, abstained in the vote following global pressure for a ceasefire to ease fears of famine after nearly six months of war. Hamas welcomed the resolution, which also demanded the unconditional release of all hostages seized by the militant group in its deadly October 7 raid on southern Israel.…

Mar

22

2024

By AIDAN LEWIS

US pushes peace talks to avert ‘point of no return’ in Sudan

NEWS

The United States hopes for a relaunch of talks aimed at ending the conflict in Sudan and opening up humanitarian access soon after Ramadan ends in mid-April, Washington's newly appointed envoy said on Thursday. Saudi Arabia and the United States led talks in Jeddah last year to try to reach a truce between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but the negotiations faltered amid competing international peace initiatives. "We need to restart formal talks. We hope that will happen as soon as Ramadan is over," Tom Perriello, who took up his role as U.S. special envoy to…

Mar

21

2024

By MOHAMMAD SALEM and GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER

In Gaza, starving children fill hospital wards as famine looms

WORLD

SIX-YEAR-OLD Fadi al-Zant is acutely malnourished, his ribs protruding under leathery skin, his eyes sunken as he lays in bed at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where famine is bearing down. Fadi's spindly legs can no longer support him enough to walk. Photographs of Fadi from before the war show a smiling, healthy-looking child, standing in blue denims next to his taller twin with his hair brushed. A short video clip shows him dancing at a wedding with a little girl. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Fadi al-Zant in family photos. Fadi suffers from cystic fibrosis. Before the…

Mar

17

2024

By The African Mirror

U.N. agency in Gaza says one in three children under 2 is acutely malnourished

WORLD

ONE in three children under age 2 in northern Gaza is now acutely malnourished and famine is looming, the main U.N. agency operating in the Palestinian enclave said on Saturday. "Children's malnutrition is spreading fast and reaching unprecedented levels in Gaza," the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said in a social media post. More than five months into Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' attack on October 7, much of the enclave is in ruins with most of its 2.3 million population displaced and facing a major humanitarian crisis. Hospitals in Gaza…