Malawi

Tropical storm Filipo has hit Mozambique today, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of humanitarian support. The storm, which made landfall in Inhambane province in Mozambique, comes just a year after Cyclone Freddy ravaged several parts of Mozambique and Malawi, and left millions of people without food, water or shelter, said Oxfam today. 

Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing an unprecedented surge of cholera cases, Oxfam warned today. The aid agency says the situation could become uncontrollable and difficult to manage due to a steady increase of COVID-19 cases and the onset of the rainy season, especially as the majority of vulnerable communities have no access to clean water and sanitation facilities - both of which are essential to prevent the spread of cholera. 
 

More 80 people including women and children have been killed in Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar, and millions more need urgently need clean water, shelter and food following Cyclone Freddy – the longest and strongest tropical storm on record in the Southern hemisphere – which has damaged thousands of homes, roads, and telecommunication infrastructures.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the extreme inequality in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and pushed millions into poverty, reveals a new analysis from Oxfam, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Development Finance International (DFI).

Oxfam and its humanitarian partner organizations are providing humanitarian support including cash, food, clean water and sanitation to people recovering from multiple cyclones that have torn across Southern Africa in the past two weeks.

As COVID-19 exposes vulnerabilities in the global food system, a new Oxfam report highlights the power of the world’s top ten food and beverage companies to create more equitable and sustainable supply chains that can help lift millions of food producers out of poverty and fuel economies. The comprehensive report, “Shining a Spotlight” assesses how companies have delivered on commitments made during Oxfam’s Behind the Brands campaign to implement stronger sourcing policies that impact climate change, land rights and women’s empowerment. 

One year on from the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the People’s Vaccine Alliance is warning that developing countries are facing critical shortages of oxygen and medical supplies to cope with COVID-19 cases yet the majority have been unable to administer a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. In contrast rich nations have vaccinated their citizens at a rate of one person per second over the last month.

Over 1,000 health professionals from 66 countries have signed a letter urging the G20 to cancel the debt of developing countries, ahead of tomorrow’s extraordinary G20 Finance Ministers meeting.

The coronavirus pandemic is fast pushing developing countries toward a debt crisis that would be catastrophic for their fight against poverty, with the likelihood of multi-billion-dollar defaults that will hurt the entire global economy, warned Oxfam ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting this weekend (July 18-19).

40 million people in Southern Africa are at risk of increased hunger and poverty due to the double threat of the coronavirus and consecutive climatic shocks, warned Oxfam today.