Latest news with #humanitariancrisis
The National
35 minutes ago
- Politics
- The National
UN chief says those seeking food in Gaza must not face 'death sentence'
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that any operation that funnels desperate civilians seeking aid into militarised zones in Gaza is 'inherently unsafe', and that 'it is killing people'. While Mr Guterres did not identify any organisation, his comments were seemingly directed at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an entity backed by the US and Israel that has circumvented traditional aid distribution networks to the alarm of the UN and international NGOs. He added that UN-led humanitarian efforts are being ' strangled ', aid workers themselves are starving and Israel – as the occupying power – is required to enable aid deliveries throughout the Palestinian enclave. 'People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,' Mr Guterres said. Gaza's 2.3 million people face widespread hunger, with many having been displaced several times by the conflict. His comments come after the head of the GHF, Johnnie Moore, said he had sent a letter to the UN chief asking for collaboration through its aid delivery model. In the letter, sent earlier this week, Mr Moore called on the UN to engage 'immediately and directly' with the GHF to deliver food without the use of 'intermediaries, but through a model that has already proven its capacity to reach those in need'. Israel eased a months-long blockade on Gaza last month, but it has allowed only a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the enclave by way of the UN and the GHF. The UN and aid agencies say the GHF is militarising aid, with the sites it has set up for distribution guarded by armed private security contractors. The US and Israel have accused Hamas and other groups of looting aid meant for desperate Palestinians. Despite the presence of the private security contractors, local authorities say that hundreds of people have been killed, most reportedly by Israeli fire, as they approached distribution sites or queued for aid. Israel and the GHF have dismissed reports of widespread violence as a 'disinformation campaign'. The US announced on Thursday that the State Department will allocate $30 million to the GHF's efforts in Gaza. The organisation says it has distributed almost 50 million meals in the enclave so far.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on annihilation in Gaza: the deaths mount, but the pressure has ebbed
'We cannot be asking civilians to go into a combat zone so that then they can be killed with the justification that they are in a combat zone.' It defies belief that the Unicef spokesperson, James Elder, should have needed to spell that out this week. And yet each day Palestinians continue to be killed while attempting to collect aid for their families from food hubs in Gaza, forced to make a lethal choice between risking being shot and letting their families slowly starve. More than 500 have died around the centres since the system was introduced – yet, with attention fixed on Israel's attacks on Iran, there has been little to spare for recent deaths. The Israeli military has sought to shrug off accountability with shifting accounts of events. But officers and soldiers have told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds that clearly posed no threat. Médecins Sans Frontières has accurately described the system as 'slaughter masquerading as humanitarian aid'. Meanwhile, Israel has closed crossings into the north. Overall, Gaza's health ministry says that 56,331 people have died in Israeli attacks since war began. Researchers who assess war casualties suggested this week that, far from being exaggerated, this undercounts the toll. They estimated that violent deaths had reached 75,000 by this January, with another 8,500 excess deaths due to the war. The toll of hunger has yet to be reckoned. The ceasefire with Iran has prompted talk that Benjamin Netanyahu may be contemplating an early election, hoping to ride to victory on the glory. That would be tough without the release of hostages and at least the impression of an end to the war in Gaza. Yet it remains unclear whether there is actual movement towards a deal with Hamas. Donald Trump's hazy vision of a grand deal for the Middle East is built upon a fantasy of Arab state acquiescence without any concrete offer for Palestinians. Without a proper agreement, the threat of strikes resuming would loom large, there would be no promise that proper aid would follow, and recovery would be impossible. The far-right coalition partners upon whom Mr Netanyahu depends want the 'day after' to bring not a resurgence of life but the disappearance of Palestinians from Gaza – and beyond. The surging violence and mass displacements in the occupied West Bank, which have seen 943 Palestinians killed by settlers or security forces since 7 October 2023, have been described as 'Gazafication'. Meanwhile, Israel entrenches its control politically. As Israel's allies stand by – or, like Mr Trump, spur on horrors such as the food scheme – the necessary destination of a two-state solution is becoming a mirage. Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, has suggested openly that the US no longer sees an independent Palestinian state as a goal. European nations, including the UK, which had edged towards recognising one, have backed off since Israel attacked Iran. A review by the diplomatic service of the EU – Israel's biggest trading partner – found that the country was probably breaching human rights duties under their trade deal, yet the bloc has not acted accordingly. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, rightly urged the EU to suspend the accord. While the arms and trade still flow, Israel's allies are complicit in the destruction of lives in Gaza. They must instead make themselves central to building a future for Palestinians in a state of their own. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Politics
- Arab News
13 killed including 3 children in Sudan paramilitary strikes in Darfur
KHARTOUM: Paramilitary shelling of the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher in western Sudan killed 13 people including 3 children on Friday, a medical source told AFP as the United Nations announced it was seeking to secure a humanitarian pause in the city.'Another 21 people were injured due to the artillery shelling from the Rapid Support militia,' the source said, referring to the Rapid Support Forces, at war with the regular army since April RSF has besieged the North Darfur state capital since May of last year and has launched repeated attacks in an attempt to seize the city of an estimated million strike came hours after Sudan's ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council said army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan's office had agreed in a phone call with UN chief Antonio Guterres to a 'week-long humanitarian truce in El-Fasher to support UN efforts and facilitate aid access to thousands of besieged civilians.'Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday said 'we are making contacts with both sides with that objective.'The UN has repeatedly warned of the plight of trapped civilians in the city, where hunger has pushed families to survive on eating leaves and peanut shells as nearly no aid is allowed report soaring prices and a near-total absence of health facilities, nearly all of which have been forced shut by the fighting.A World Food Programme facility inside El-Fasher was damaged from repeated RSF shelling last month, and in early June five aid workers were killed in an attack on a UN convoy seeking to supply the paramilitary has repeatedly attacked the city and its surrounding famine-hit displacement camps, killing hundreds of civilians and pushing hundreds of thousands of already displaced people to has described the situation as 'hell on earth' for at least 825,000 children trapped in and around RSF conquered nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur in the early months of the war, but has been unable to seize North Darfur state capital El-Fasher despite besieging the city for over a RSF source told AFP Friday the paramilitary had not received a ceasefire sources say an official famine declaration is impossible given the lack of access to data, but mass starvation has already taken hold of the a million people are on the brink of famine in North Darfur, according to the latest available UN the 10 million people currently internally displaced in Sudan — the world's largest displacement crisis — nearly 20 percent are in North Darfur.
Arab News
an hour ago
- Politics
- Arab News
UN chief says Gazans seeking food must not face ‘death sentence'
NEW YORK CITY: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that hungry people in Gaza seeking food must not face a 'death sentence' as controversy swirls around a new US- and Israeli-backed distribution system. 'People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,' Guterres told reporters, without explicitly naming the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, whose operations have led to near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people desperate to get food. 'Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people,' Guterres added. The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says that since late May, more than 500 people have been killed near aid centers while seeking scarce supplies. GHF has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points. Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings of that the entire population of the occupied Palestinian territory is at risk of famine. The United Nations says Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under international law. The densely populated Gaza Strip has been largely flattened by Israeli bombing since the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas. Israel began allowing food supplies to trickle in at the end of May, using GHF — backed by armed US contractors, with Israeli troops on the perimeter — to run operations. 'The problem of the distribution of humanitarian aid must be solved. There is no need to reinvent the wheel with dangerous schemes,' Guterres said. The UN and major aid groups have refused to work with the GHF, citing concerns it serves Israeli military goals and that it violates basic humanitarian principles by working with one of the sides in a conflict. 'We have the solution — a detailed plan grounded in the humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. We have the supplies. We have the experience. Our plan is guided by what people need,' said the UN chief. He said a 'handful' of medical crossed into Gaza this week, the first shipment in months. 'A trickle of aid is not enough. What's needed now is a surge — the trickle must become an ocean,' said Guterres. Guterres said that as the world focuses on the conflict between Israel and Iran, the suffering of Palestinians must not be 'pushed into the shadows,' calling for 'political courage for a ceasefire.'
CTV News
3 hours ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Congo and Rwanda will sign a U.S.-mediated peace deal to end the conflict in eastern Congo
Residents listen to Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, during his visit to North Kivu's town of Buhumba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa) DAKAR, Senegal — The Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda are set to sign a peace deal facilitated by the U.S. to help end the decades-long deadly fighting in eastern Congo. The deal, which is due to be signed in Washington on Friday afternoon, would also help the U.S. government and American companies gain access to critical minerals in the region. The Central African nation of Congo has been ripped apart by conflict with more than 100 armed groups. The most prominent is the M23 rebel group, backed by neighbouring Rwanda, whose major advance early this year left bodies littered on the streets. With seven million people displaced in Congo, the United Nations has called it 'one of the most protracted, complex, serious humanitarian crises on Earth.' Lauded by U.S. President Donald Trump last week as 'a Great Day for Africa and ... for the World,' the crucial deal comes as part of other ongoing peace talks to end the conflict, including ones mediated by the African Union and Qatar. The agreement involves provisions on respect for territorial integrity, a prohibition of hostilities as well as the disengagement, disarmament and conditional integration of non-state armed groups, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told reporters on Thursday. UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric also said on Thursday that such a deal is welcomed, adding: 'We talk almost every day about … the horrific suffering of civilians, the hunger, the sexual violence, the constant fear, the constant displacement' in eastern Congo. Peace deal not likely to quickly end the conflict Congo hopes the U.S. will provide it with the security support needed to fight the rebels and possibly get them to withdraw from the key cities of Goma and Bukavu, and from the entire region where Rwanda is estimated to have up to 4,000 troops. Rwanda has said that it's defending its territorial interests and not supporting M23. But M23 rebels have suggested that the agreement won't be binding on them. The rebel group hasn't been directly involved in the planned peace deal, although it has been part of other ongoing peace talks. Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance — known by its French acronym AFC — that includes M23, told The Associated Press in March that direct peace talks with Congo can only be held if the country acknowledges their grievances and that 'anything regarding us which are done without us, it's against us.' An M23 spokesman, Oscar Balinda, also echoed those thoughts in an interview with the AP this week, saying the U.S.-facilitated deal doesn't concern the rebels. Rwanda has also been accused of exploiting eastern Congo's minerals, a trend analysts say might make it difficult for Rwanda to not be involved in any way in the region. A team of UN experts alleged in a December report that 'fraudulent extraction, trade and export to Rwanda of (Congo) minerals benefited both AFC/M23 and the Rwandan economy.' Rwanda has denied any involvement in Congo's minerals. The deal is also at the heart of the U.S. government's push to counter China in Africa. Chinese companies have been for many years one of the key players in Congo's minerals sector. Chinese cobalt refineries, which account for a majority of the global supply, rely heavily on Congo. U.S. role in ending the conflict Analysts say the U.S. government's commitment might depend on how much access it has to the minerals being discussed under separate negotiations between the American and Congolese government. The mostly untapped minerals — estimated to be worth as much as US$24 trillion by the U.S. Department of Commerce — are critical to much of the world's technology. Christian Moleka, a political scientist at the Congolese think tank Dypol, called the planned deal a 'major turning point' in the decades-long conflict, but that the signing could 'in no way eliminate all the issues of the conflict.' 'The current draft agreement ignores war crimes and justice for victims by imposing a partnership between the victim and the aggressor,' he said. 'This seems like a trigger-happy proposition and cannot establish lasting peace without justice and reparation.' In Congo's North Kivu province, the hardest hit by the fighting, some believe that the peace deal will help resolve the violence, but warn justice must still be served for an enduring peace to take hold. 'I don't think the Americans should be trusted 100 per cent,' said Hope Muhinuka, an activist from the province. 'It is up to us to capitalize on all we have now as an opportunity.' ___ Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo, Ignatius Ssuuna in Kigali, Rwanda, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Chinedu Asadu, The Associated Press
