humanitarian crisis - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

After surviving airstrike Palestinian boy dies seeking aid

WHEN an Israeli airstrike destroyed his family's home in November, Zein Oroq was pinned under rubble. He was wounded but survived, while 17 members of his extended family died. But Zein, 13, would later suffer a cruel fate in Gaza, where Palestinians face severe shortages of medicine, food and water in a deepening humanitarian crisis. The population of the tiny enclave, where Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas have been fighting for more than six months, is at risk of famine. Last week, during an airdrop of aid, the teenager was struck by one of the packages as he…

Apr

2024

By The African Mirror

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis: The facts and figures

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

A year of war between rival military factions in Sudan has pushed parts of the country to the brink of famine, and left 25 million people - about half the population - in need of assistance, according to aid agencies. Sudan was already burdened with rising hunger, a collapsing health system and widespread poverty before the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out. HUNGER *Some 17.7 million of Sudan's 49 million population were facing what experts term acute food insecurity, a sharp increase from last year, according to a projection covering the five months to…

Apr

2024

By NYASHA CHINGONO

Hunger grips southern Africa as Zimbabwe declares drought a disaster

NEWS

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa declared Zimbabwe's drought a national disaster and said the country needed more than $2 billion in aid to feed millions facing hunger. Mnangagwa's statement follows similar announcements by Zambia in late February and Malawi in March, as drought induced by the El Nino global weather pattern triggers a humanitarian crisis in southern Africa.d More than 2.7 million people in Zimbabwe will go hungry this year, Mnangagwa told journalists at the state house in Harare, adding that 80% of the country had received poor rains. "Preliminary assessments show that Zimbabwe requires in excess of $2 billion towards various…

Mar

2024

By STEPHANIE VAN DEN BERG and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

World Court orders Israel to halt Gaza famine; Hamas says ceasefire needed

WORLD

THERE was no immediate comment from Israel's Foreign Ministry on the World Court ruling. Israel has said it is making efforts to expand access for humanitarian groups to Gaza overland, through airdrops and by ship. Israeli leaders have said Hamas can end the war by surrendering, freeing all hostages it holds in Gaza and handing over for trial those involved in the October 7 attack. The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the Al Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start…

Mar

2024

By HUMEYRA PAMUK and NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Gaza marks Ramadan in despair as Blinken holds truce talks in Cairo

WORLD

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Egypt's president for talks on securing a Gaza ceasefire, as Gaza's Palestinians despaired at observing Ramadan without relatives who had been killed or adequate food for their children. In Gaza, Israel's offensive focused on the Al Shifa hospital, the only partially working medical facility in the north of the Strip, for a fourth day, and local residents said they had seen buildings inside the complex in flames. With hunger spreading in the densely populated enclave, where five months of war have created critical food shortages, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said…

Feb

2024

By The African Mirror

Canada pledges C$80.5 mln to back Kenya-led security mission to Haiti

NEWS

CANADA announced C$123 million ($91 million) for Haiti, including C$80.5 million for the deployment of a Kenya-led multinational mission to support Haitian police combat criminal gangs as the Caribbean nation faces a humanitarian crisis. Canada's support "will contribute to pave the way to more meaningful interventions to protect the people of Haiti and encourage Haitian-led efforts to restore peace and prosperity in the country," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement.

Jan

2024

By AIDAN LEWIS

Agencies consider new aid route into Sudan as humanitarian crisis worsens

NEWS

AID agencies are looking at delivering aid to Sudan on a new route from South Sudan as they struggle to access much of the country, a senior U.N. official said, nine months into a war that has caused a major humanitarian crisis. The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has left nearly half of Sudan's 49 million people requiring aid. More than 7.5 million people have fled their homes, making Sudan the biggest displacement crisis globally, and hunger is rising. Aid supplies have been looted and humanitarian workers attacked, while international agencies and NGOs have long complained about bureaucratic obstacles…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Aid agencies report looting, suspend operations in Sudanese state

NEWS

TWO international aid organisations say that their facilities have been looted and they have suspended operations in an area of Sudan where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently advanced in its war with the army. The halting of operations by the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) and Medical charity MSF in El Gezira risks exacerbating a humanitarian crisis caused by more than eight months of war. The WFP said it had been forced to pause distributions of aid in El Gezira state where it said a warehouse containing enough stocks to feed 1.5 million people for a month had…

Dec

2023

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI, BASSAM MASOUD and DAN WILLIAMS

Israel pounds central Gaza, dozens more Palestinians killed

WORLD

PALESTINIAN authorities reported dozens more deaths, including 20 in one attack as Israeli forces pounded central Gaza by land, sea and air. Reflecting Israeli resolve to wipe out Hamas despite international calls for a ceasefire amid a humanitarian crisis, Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday the war would last many months. There were "no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization," he said. A Gaza health ministry statement said an Israeli air strike killed 20 Palestinians on Wednesday near the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. A telecommunications…

Dec

2023

By DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS, HUMEYRA PAMUK and NAFISA ELTAHIR

US declares warring parties in Sudan committed war crimes

NEWS

THE United States formally determined that warring parties in Sudan committed war crimes, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, as Washington increases pressure on the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to end fighting that has caused a humanitarian crisis. Washington also determined that the RSF and allied militias committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, Blinken said in a statement. The fighting, which broke out in mid-April, has displaced more than 6.5 million inside and outside Sudan, killed more than 10,000 and decimated the economy. "The expansion of the needless conflict between RSF and the SAF has caused grievous human…