Gaza: Famine doesn’t happen overnight, says UN aid agency
UN aid agencies still in Gaza insisted once again on Tuesday on the need to get “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” more trucks carrying food and other supplies into the war-torn enclave, to reverse mass starvation caused by Israeli blockades.
The development comes as the UN Security Council prepared to meet on Tuesday to discuss the hostage crisis in meeting called by Israel, while ceasefire talks with Hamas have reportedly stalled.
A second week of Israeli military pauses has allowed a very limited number of lorries carrying supplies to reach Gaza – as food insecurity experts warned of imminent famine.
Here’s Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA:
“I hope you understand that the magnitude, the difference between this very small amount of aid that has now come in – and everybody expects me to clap and say thank you – and the massive needs that are; where people are literally dying on a daily basis, it’s really out of proportion.”
Mr. Laerke insisted that thousands of trucks full of aid will probably be needed for months and possibly years to help starving Gazans.
“We are now on the brink of famine as you know, that is not something that happens overnight,” he told journalists in Geneva.
Sudan: Children just skin and bones and dying from hunger
To Sudan, where aid workers warned on Tuesday about widespread starvation affecting communities cut off by the ongoing war between rival militaries.
Sheldon Yett represents the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, in Sudan.
He visited Al Jazeera and Khartoum states where humanitarian teams and partners are providing healthcare and delivering lifesaving aid, often in dangerous conditions.
Jebel Aulia is one of two localities in Khartoum State at extreme risk of famine.
Here’s Mr. Yett now, speaking from Port Sudan:
“Malnutrition was rife, and many of the children were reduced to just skin and bones. Children and families in the neighborhoods were sheltered often in small, damaged or unfinished buildings, Roads are narrow, muddy, and often impassable and getting more impassable by the day as the rains continue.”
Across Sudan, more than 30 million people are now acutely hungry and in desperate need of support, well over two years since heavy fighting began.
UNICEF and other aid agencies warn that the scale of needs is staggering but they are stretched to the limit by a lack of access, attacks and a lack of humanitarian funding.
The epicentre of the crisis is in North Darfur town of El Fasher, which remains under siege by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Humanitarians say that no relief supplies have been allowed into El Fasher by road in 12 months.
Geography shouldn’t define destiny, UN chief tells summit on landlocked nations
Fair global development should be possible for all nations, UN chief António Guterres has told a summit of landlocked States in Awaza, Turkmenistan.
Addressing the Third UN Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries, António Guterres insisted that “geography should never define destiny”.
There are 32 landlocked developing countries worldwide; 16 are in Africa, 10 are in Asia, four are in Europe and two are in Latin America.
Together, they are home to over 500 million people.
Mr. Guterres said that they face “daunting challenges”, including steep barriers to trade, high transport costs and limited access to global markets.
The UN chief warned that the debt burden of these countries had also reached “dangerous and unsustainable levels”, in part because of high levels of interest on loans, compared to wealthier economies – a system that Mr. Guterres called “unfair”.
The task before the conference of landlocked nations which ends on Friday is to find solutions for economic growth and unlocking development potential.
Daniel Johnson, UN News.
