food crisis

After the double tragedy of Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth, the people of Mozambique now face yet another crisis: a food security crisis. This joint agency briefing calls for urgent funding for emergency food assistance and longer term support to help affected women, men and children to rebuild their lives.

The “Global Report on Food Crises”, released today by the Food Security Information Network, says that more than 113 million people across 53 countries experienced acute hunger and required urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance in 2018. This is a human-made crisis caused by conflict, climate change, and a broken global food system, says Oxfam France’s Executive Director Cécile Duflot.

While all parties fighting refuse to compromise, Yemen's civilians are paying the price. As the Hudaydah offensive moves closer to the sea port and city, world leaders have a choice to put their full backing behind peace to bring an end to this crisis, or oversee a potential humanitarian catastrophe.

The Saudi - and UAE - led Coalition’s assault on Hodeida – Yemen’s lifeline port – threatens hundreds of thousands of civilians in that city, and around 20 million more who rely on its imports of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies. The strategy to prevent this assault through quiet diplomacy has failed. For the sake of millions of Yemenis, the time for a more effective strategy is now.

In response to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's announcement to reopen Hodeidah port and Sanaa airport to humanitarian assistance, Oxfam says this is an empty gesture while millions of Yemenis sees their lives threatened by the two-week blockade on the country. 

Over 380,000 children under five are at risk of dying from a lethal combination of severe hunger and deadly diseases becuase of acute malnutrition.

 

Since the end of April 2017, Yemen has been experiencing its worst recorded outbreak of suspected cholera in a single year. By mid-August, more than 500,000 cases were recorded. Significant and urgent scale up in all areas of intervention is needed.

Another poor rainy season, the third in a row, has plunged 700,000 more people into crippling hunger and on the verge of starvation in the Somali region of southern Ethiopia.

New IPC figures show that famine has been pushed back in South Sudan, but the food crisis continues to spread across the country and 6 million people are facing severe hunger and need immediate help.