Violence shuts crucial aid corridor into Sudan’s Darfur, UN agency says
Reuters Violence around the city of al-Fashir in Darfur, Sudan, has blocked a recently opened humanitarian corridor from Chad and time is running out to prevent starvation in the vast region, the UN World Food Programme said on Friday. Attacks around al-Fashir, the Sudanese army’s last holdout in Darfur and home to some 1.6 million […]
Nearly 50 million facing hunger in West, Central Africa as conflict spreads
Dakar, SenegalReuters A record 49.5 million people are expected to go hungry in West and Central Africa next year due to a combination of conflict, climate change and high food prices, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The figure is four per cent higher than in 2023. In coastal countries, the number of people facing […]
End of Black Sea grains deal promises pain for Africa’s neediest
Mogadishu, SomaliaReuters Russia’s announcement that it was withdrawing from a pact that allowed Ukrainian grains to leave Black Sea ports sent a shiver through poorer countries, many of which are already reeling from inflation, climate shocks and conflict. The Black Sea grains deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July, 2022, helped bring […]
Sudan factions agree to extend ceasefire deal amid clashes
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesReuters Sudan’s warring military factions agreed on Monday to a five-day extension of a ceasefire agreement, after renewed heavy clashes and air strikes in the capital threw fresh doubts on the effectiveness of a truce designed to ease a humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia and the United States, which brokered a week-long ceasefire […]
Sudan’s warring generals extend theoretical truce but keep fighting
Khartoum, SudanReuters Sudan’s warring military factions agreed to a new and longer seven-day ceasefire from Thursday, neighbour and mediator South Sudan said, even as more air strikes and shooting in the Khartoum capital region undercut their latest supposed truce. Previous ceasefire pledges have ranged from 24 to 72 hours but there have been constant truce […]
Millions facing severe hunger in Horn of Africa – UN food agency
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday that 13 million people across the Horn of Africa face severe hunger, calling for immediate assistance to avoid a repeat of a famine a decade ago that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Three failed rainy seasons have created the driest conditions since the 1980s, […]
Madagascar food crisis caused more by poverty, natural weather than climate change – study
Reuters Poverty, poor infrastructure and natural weather variability are bigger contributors to Madagascar’s food crisis than climate change, according to a study released on Thursday by international research collective World Weather Attribution. But the crisis still highlights vulnerabilities that will only worsen as global temperatures continue to rise, scientists for the organisation said. Malagasy children […]
UN pushes cash handouts to avert mass poverty in Afghanistan
United NationsReuters The United Nations said on Wednesday that a program to pay $US300 million a year in cash to Afghan families with children, elderly or people with disabilities is the best way to target increasing poverty. In what the UN Development Programme described as an “alarming” socio-economic outlook for Afghanistan for the next 13 […]
Foreign aid trickles in to rural Haiti amid struggle to count victims
Cavaillon, Haiti Reuters A drip of foreign aid began to reach more rural areas of south-western Haiti on Thursday, arriving five days after a powerful earthquake killed more than 2,000 and flattened tens of thousands of buildings into rubble. Hundreds of people lined up to receive provisions from the UN World Food Programme at a camp […]
Refugee stories hit Australian billboards for World Vision’s “Big Impact” campaign
Eleven-year-old Yasmin’s life changed completely when her family was forced to flee their home in Syria and start a new life in a refugee settlement. Her new life certainly isn’t easy but, thanks to the aid of World Vision, she not only receives nutritious food (this through a partnership with the UN World Food Programme) […]