humanitarian aid

A recent influx of 63,000 displaced families – bringing the total to almost half a million people – into the Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has sparked grave concerns among international and national NGOs in Pakistan.

The first warnings of drought and poor harvests in Africa’s Sahel region emerged in late 2011, and vulnerable communities in many areas have been threatened by a looming food crisis.

International agency Oxfam today warned that sanctions imposed on Mali could have devastating consequences on 3.5m people already at risk of hunger, if humanitarian needs are not safeguarded.

Eric Mamboue Oxfam Country director in Mali said:

According to a recent field study conducted in communities in western and eastern Niger, between 70 and 90 per cent of people estimate their food stocks will run out before the next harvest, creating an imminent ‘hunger gap’.

Yemen is at the crossroads of humanitarian catastrophe international aid agency Oxfam said today in reaction to new figures from the World Food Programme, which showed a radical increase in the number of people facing severe hunger in the country.

Humanitarian actors are concerned by the early depletion of food reserves of many Nigerien families and warn of the risk of aggravation of the food and nutrition crisis if the aid response is not rapidly reinforced.

The international humanitarian response system will fail to cope with the expected rise in the number of people exposed to crises unless there are more resources closer to where disasters happen and there is more investment in preventing and reducing the risk of disasters, warns Oxfam.

In 2010, vast humanitarian crises from Haiti to Pakistan almost overwhelmed the international system’s ability to respond.

More than 13 million people are still affected by the crisis in the Horn of Africa.