hunger crisis

Oxfam is deeply disappointed by today’s donors’ dismally inadequate pledges to East Africa’s crisis; a protracted crisis which continues to be woefully underfunded.

As the international community gathers in New York this week for the Horn of Africa High Level Pledging Conference, we urge global donors to address the impact of the climate injustice taking place in the region by making the financial pledges required to fully fund the humanitarian response and help address immediate and long-term needs across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where millions of people are trapped in a devastating cycle of hunger and displacement.

In reaction to the GRFC 2023, Oxfam Global Food and Economic Security Lead, Emily Farr, said:  “For global hunger to rise for a fourth consecutive year in a world of plenty is a stain on our collective humanity. Decades of progress made to end poverty and hunger are being fast-reversed by conflict, economic shocks, and climate change.  

Renewed violent clashes involving non-state armed groups have exacerbated the hunger and
protection crises in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leaving 10 million people in urgent
need of humanitarian assistance, warned Oxfam, CARE International and the Danish Refugee
Council today.

Over 60 activists, social movements, and women food producers that have gathered in Maputo,
Mozambique for Women Food Convening 2023 conference say that the current global food
system is exploitative, broken, unjust, marginalises women and exacerbates gender inequalities
and hunger particularly in low-income countries.

Up to 90% of water boreholes in parts of Somalia, Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia have entirely dried up.

Despite promises, nearly three-quarters of African governments reduced their agricultural budgets while paying almost double that on arms.

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) figures for Somalia, shows that Somalia remains on the brink of famine. 5.6 million people are now in crisis or worse levels of food insecurity and this is expected to rise to 6.4 million by March 2023, and 8.3 million by June 2023. By June 2023, the number of people in catastrophic levels of hunger (IPC Phase 5) is expected to double to 727,000.

More than half the population of South Sudan – 6.6 million people – are severely hungry, including 2.2 million people at risk of starvation. Yet the humanitarian response remains woefully underfunded and without an urgent increase in aid now, 7.7 million people or two-thirds of the population will face severe food shortages next year, Oxfam warned today.

One person is likely to die of hunger every 36 seconds between now and the end of the year in drought-stricken East Africa as the worst hit areas hurtle towards famine, Oxfam warned today.