عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

Hunger Crisis in Gaza: What to Know

Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, displaced from Beit Hanun and suffering from a pre-existing condition, lies on a hospital bed at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah; he died on March 4 severe malnourishment and insufficient healthcare- AFP
Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, displaced from Beit Hanun and suffering from a pre-existing condition, lies on a hospital bed at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah; he died on March 4 severe malnourishment and insufficient healthcare- AFP
TT
20
TT

Hunger Crisis in Gaza: What to Know

Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, displaced from Beit Hanun and suffering from a pre-existing condition, lies on a hospital bed at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah; he died on March 4 severe malnourishment and insufficient healthcare- AFP
Ten-year-old Palestinian boy, Yazan al-Kafarneh, displaced from Beit Hanun and suffering from a pre-existing condition, lies on a hospital bed at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah; he died on March 4 severe malnourishment and insufficient healthcare- AFP

Children have begun starving to death in Gaza, where the United Nations has warned a famine is "almost inevitable."

Here's what to know about the hunger crisis engulfing the war-torn Palestinian territory.

At least 15 children have died from starvation and dehydration in a single hospital, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Media including AFP have captured haunting images of emaciated infants with sunken eyes and gaunt faces.

Over the weekend, World Health Organization workers were able to visit hospitals in northern Gaza for the first time since October, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday on X.

He said the workers found "severe levels of malnutrition, children dying of starvation, serious shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies, hospital buildings destroyed."

Across Gaza, 90 percent of children aged 6–23 months and pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe food poverty, according to a report released two weeks ago by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a network of nutrition NGOs led by UNICEF.

At least 90 percent of children under five are affected by one or more infectious diseases, it added.

Aid organizations working on the ground blame Israel, which is waging a war against Hamas in the wake of the October 7 attacks, for preventing enough food trucks from entering Gaza.

"As the occupying power in Gaza, Israel has the responsibility to ensure that the occupied population receives food and medical supplies," the International Rescue Committee told AFP in a statement.

"Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions, is a war crime."

At the start of the conflict, high-ranking Israeli officials such as defense minister Yoav Gallant, openly called for a "complete siege" to deprive Palestinians of food, fuel and water. But officials have since walked back that rhetoric.

"Our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza," military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said recently, adding Israel was "facilitating aid."

The UN food agency said Tuesday its aid convoy was turned away by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in northern Gaza.

Last week, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians scrambling for food aid in a chaotic melee that killed more than 100 people.

US military planes have begun dropping tens of thousands of meals, though aid agencies say this is an inefficient way to curb the crisis.

Dabney Evans, director of the Center for Humanitarian Emergencies at Emory University, told AFP that images from Gaza indicated the most severe forms of malnutrition, including "wasting" which refers to extremely low weight for a person's height, as a result of severe decreases in caloric intake in a short period of time.

"Their bodies are beginning to break down and are in shock," said Evans, explaining that bringing someone back to good health requires careful supervised medical care, not just giving them food, which can be dangerous.

Imad Dardonah, a pediatrician at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the only pediatrics hospital in northern Gaza, told AFP that staff had supplies to only treat around half of cases adequately.

"We have nothing to give them, the most we can do for them is either give them saline solution or sugar solution."

If malnutrition is prolonged it will lead to long-term consequences such as growth stunting, a reduced ability to learn, and a weakened immune system.

Anu Narayan, an advisor for UNICEF on child nutrition, told AFP there would likely be a "lifelong impact" at least on some individuals.

"We know for a fact that it can impact children's cognitive development and over the long term has an impact on their earnings and ability to function fully."

UC Berkeley researchers recently learned that people born during the Great Chinese Famine more than 60 years ago -- and their offspring -- had far higher rates of tuberculosis, "indicating a previously unrecognized, intergenerational effect of prenatal and early life exposure to famine."

Since 2004, "famine" has had a formal technical definition: it occurs when at least 20 percent of the population face extreme food shortages, acute malnutrition rates exceed 30 percent, and two out of 1,000 people die from starvation on a daily basis.

While the word is highly charged and has the power to spur world action, it has only been officially declared twice in the past decade: in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017.

But Narayan told AFP it made little sense to fixate on the fact the Gaza crisis had not yet met the highest possible classification.

"We have seen that all the factors that put people, but particularly young children at such high risk, are there."

Most Viewed

 
Features

Sudan's Relentless War: A 70-Year Cycle of Conflict

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
TT
20
TT

Sudan's Relentless War: A 70-Year Cycle of Conflict

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, pictured during their alliance to oust Omar al-Bashir in 2019 (AFP)

While world conflicts dominate headlines, Sudan’s deepening catastrophe is unfolding largely out of sight; a brutal war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and flattened entire cities and regions.

More than a year into the conflict, some observers question whether the international community has grown weary of Sudan’s seemingly endless cycles of violence. The country has endured nearly seven decades of civil war, and what is happening now is not an exception, but the latest chapter in a bloody history of rebellion and collapse.

The first of Sudan’s modern wars began even before the country gained independence from Britain. In 1955, army officer Joseph Lagu led the southern “Anyanya” rebellion, named after a venomous snake, launching a guerrilla war that would last until 1972.

A peace agreement brokered by the World Council of Churches and Ethiopia’s late Emperor Haile Selassie ended that conflict with the signing of the Addis Ababa Accord.

But peace proved short-lived. In 1983, then-president Jaafar Nimeiry reignited tensions by announcing the imposition of Islamic Sharia law, known as the “September Laws.” The move prompted the rise of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), led by John Garang, and a renewed southern insurgency that raged for more than two decades, outliving Nimeiry’s regime.

Under Omar al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, the war took on an Islamist tone. His government declared “jihad” and mobilized civilians in support of the fight, but failed to secure a decisive victory.

The conflict eventually gave way to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, better known as the Naivasha Agreement, which was brokered in Kenya and granted South Sudan the right to self-determination.

In 2011, more than 95% of South Sudanese voted to break away from Sudan, giving birth to the world’s newest country, the Republic of South Sudan. The secession marked the culmination of decades of war, which began with demands for a federal system and ended in full-scale conflict. The cost: over 2 million lives lost, and a once-unified nation split in two.

But even before South Sudan’s independence became reality, another brutal conflict had erupted in Sudan’s western Darfur region in 2003. Armed rebel groups from the region took up arms against the central government, accusing it of marginalization and neglect. What followed was a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign that drew global condemnation and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

As violence escalated, the United Nations deployed one of its largest-ever peacekeeping missions, the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), in a bid to stem the bloodshed.

Despite multiple peace deals, including the Juba Agreement signed in October 2020 following the ousting of long-time Islamist ruler, Bashir, fighting never truly ceased.

The Darfur war alone left more than 300,000 people dead and millions displaced. The International Criminal Court charged Bashir and several top officials, including Ahmed Haroun and Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Alongside the southern conflict, yet another war erupted in 2011, this time in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan and the Blue Nile region. The fighting was led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N), a group composed largely of northern fighters who had sided with the South during the earlier civil war under John Garang.

The conflict broke out following contested elections marred by allegations of fraud, and Khartoum’s refusal to implement key provisions of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement, particularly those related to “popular consultations” in the two regions. More than a decade later, war still grips both areas, with no lasting resolution in sight.

Then came April 15, 2023. A fresh war exploded, this time in the heart of the capital, Khartoum, pitting the Sudanese Armed Forces against the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Now entering its third year, the conflict shows no signs of abating.

According to international reports, the war has killed more than 150,000 people and displaced around 13 million, the largest internal displacement crisis on the planet. Over 3 million Sudanese have fled to neighboring countries.

Large swathes of the capital lie in ruins, and entire states have been devastated. With Khartoum no longer viable as a seat of power, the government and military leadership have relocated to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

Unlike previous wars, Sudan’s current conflict has no real audience. Global pressure on the warring factions has been minimal. Media coverage is sparse. And despite warnings from the United Nations describing the crisis as “the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe,” Sudan's descent into chaos remains largely ignored by the international community.