Press releases

International agency Oxfam said today that it has had to double its aid effort in Pakistan as the number of displaced goes over 2 million, making the crisis the greatest internal displacement of people in the country’s history.

Millions of poor people across the globe are facing the prospect of a swine flu pandemic without access to potentially life-saving healthcare.

Traumatized, exhausted and half-starved civilians who have fled Sri Lanka’s conflict zone are being housed in camps without decent water and sanitation facilities and with inadequate food supplies, international aid agency Oxfam said today.

The World Health Organization should encourage greater competition between drug companies to ensure poor countries can afford to stockpile medicines effective against swine flu, Oxfam will tell the World Health Assembly this week.

A coalition of 68 aid and human rights groups said the council should make clear to both the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo and the Congolese army that stronger measures to protect civilians are urgently needed during military operations against Rwandan militias.

As poor countries face the full impact of the economic crisis, European governments are falling short by nearly €40bn (USD$55m) on their aid promises and will not meet their 2010 aid target until 2012, a new report from CONCORD reveals.

As thousands of families continue to flee their homes in northwest Pakistan amid clashes between government forces and organized armed groups, Oxfam International has begun providing emergency relief to around 175,000 women, men and children in urgent need of assistance.

While Oxfam recognizes that a solution is needed to halt appalling levels of human rights abuses committed by armed rebels, the answer cannot be action that knowingly increases levels of human suffering

As the UN Security Council meets on May 11th to discuss the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Oxfam International urges the Council not to overlook the needs of civilians in the Gaza Strip, and to put humanitarian imperatives first.

Although there has been significant improvement in people’s livelihoods, and good work has been done to reduce the risks and impacts of future natural disasters, Oxfam calls for more support for the poorest people who survived.