Gaza disaster reminiscent of Ethiopia, Biafra famines: UN
GENEVA: The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is reminiscent of last century's famines in Ethiopia and Nigeria's Biafra region which jointly claimed over two million lives, the UN food agency warned Tuesday.
The World Food Programme joined warnings that famine is underway in the Gaza Strip. 'This is unlike anything we have seen in this century,' WFP emergency director Ross Smith told reporters in Geneva.
'It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century,' he said, speaking from Rome. Ethiopia's 1983-84 famine killed more than one million people and the famine resulting from the 1967-1970 Biafra war also contributed to over a million deaths. Smith's comments came after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) warned Tuesday that 'the worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip'.
The IPC, a UN-backed group of organizations used as a monitor to gauge malnutrition, said 'immediate, unimpeded' humanitarian access into Gaza was needed to stop more 'starvation and death'. Zionist entity imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation.
GAZA/ATHENS: A protestor holds as a prop of a wrapped dead baby during a protest in support of Palestinians and calling against the ongoing food shortages in the Gaza Strip, in Athens. -- AFP photos
The IPC said its latest data shows that 'famine thresholds' have been reached in 'most of the Gaza Strip'. Its alert does not yet amount to an official new famine classification. But Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP's food security and nutrition analysis director, said it was clear that 'indicators have gotten dramatically worse' since the IPC officially warned in May of a 'risk of famine' in Gaza. He cautioned that 'food consumption and nutrition indicators have now reached their worst level since the start of the conflict', which erupted after Hamas's deadly attack inside Zionist entity on October 7, 2023. 'In July, for the first time since the start of the crisis, malnutrition levels have exceeded the famine threshold in Gaza City,' he said.
'What we're seeing is mounting evidence that a famine is there,' he said, urging 'immediate action ... to avert massive human suffering'.
The situation is particularly dire for women and girls, the UN Women agency warned, saying they 'are facing the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters, or venturing out in search of food and water at extreme risk of being killed'. 'Children are starving to death before their eyes,' spokeswoman Sofia Calltorp said.
Over the weekend, Zionist entity declared a 'tactical pause' in army operations in parts of Gaza, saying more than 120 truckloads of food were allowed in, with some countries—such as Jordan and the UAE—air-dropping food into the besieged Palestinian territory. But Smith stressed that far less aid can be brought in by air than by truck, while air-drops risk falling on people in densely-populated Gaza. 'It carries extreme risk for populations,' he said, warning that there were already reports of injuries. 'We do have that practical solution waiting, ready at the borders of Gaza at the crossing points and ready to move,' he said. – AFP
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4 days ago
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Gaza disaster reminiscent of Ethiopia, Biafra famines: UN
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The IPC said 88 percent of Gaza was now under evacuation orders or within militarized areas, and was critical of GHF efforts. It said most of the GHF food items 'require water and fuel to cook, which are largely unavailable'. The IPC's Famine Review Committee said: 'Our analysis of the food packages supplied by the GHF shows that their distribution plan would lead to mass starvation.' The GHF was not immediately available for comment. It has previously said it has so far distributed more than 96 million meals. Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine Country Director, said that Palestinians were suffering a 'manmade famine, caused by Zionist siege and the deliberate obstruction of aid, fuelled by the inaction of world leaders'. 'The haunting images of emaciated children are evidence of a failure of humanity to act.' The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Zionist entity and took some 250 hostages, according to Zionist tallies.- Reuters
