UNSC resolution

NGOs call for the UN Security Council to urgently convene and pass a Resolution demanding an immediate and sustained ceasefire following yesterday’s UN Security Council meeting on the risk of conflict-induced famine in Gaza. 

In reaction to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published today on Gaza warning of a risk of famine if intense hostilities and restricted humanitarian access persist or worsen, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, said: “Gaza’s shocking descent into starvation was so predictable as to be premeditated, an ongoing war crime by the Government of Israel."

The world spent yearly an estimated $112 billion on arms imports between 2018-2022, even as 9,000 people die each day from hunger driven primarily by conflict. The top five-arms exporters – the USA, Russia, France, China and Germany - which account for over three-quarters of the global arms trade, together sold an estimated $85 billion worth of arms yearly.  

In response to this week’s UN General Assembly Resolution that automatically mandates the UN General Assembly to meet within 10 days in the wake of any UN Security Council veto, Oxfam’s Head of the UN New York Office, Brenda Mofya said,

“While we welcome the renewal of the resolution to allow cross-border aid, we are very concerned that the reduced crossing will limit the provision of clean water, food, shelter and healthcare on which millions of Syrians rely," said Oxfam in Syria’s Country Director Moutaz Adham in response to news that the UN Security Council’s resolution allowing cross-border aid into Syria was renewed but modified.

“As discussions and debating continues in New York for allowing aid into Syria, millions of Syrians who rely on this aid for clean water, food, shelter and healthcare, and who face the increasing threat of COVID-19, lie in the brink," said Oxfam in Syria’s Country Director Moutaz Adham in response to the results of three votes for allowing cross-border aid into Syria which have failed to extend the mandate of the cross border beyond Friday 10 July.

On Friday (Mar 28), the Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, will address the UN Security Council on Syria.