Potential Famine in Gaza Due to Lack of Aid: UN Agencies Issue Stark Warning

Gaza could experience famine if more aid does not arrive

Gaza is heading towards famine in the next six months if the conflict continues and no more aid arrives, several UN agencies have warned. For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that Northern Gaza has been left without hospitals and patients are just “waiting to die.”

Only nine of Gaza’s 36 health facilities are partially functioning, according to the WHO. All these facilities are concentrated in the south of the territory. Teams from the WHO and other UN agencies entered Al Ahli and Al Shifa hospitals in the north of the Strip on Wednesday.

They delivered seven pallets of material for surgeries and to treat wounds, supplies to help women during childbirth, intravenous fluids and medications.

The Organization’s emergency medical team coordinator, Sean Casey, said hospitals are now like hospices with very limited medical care.

“It is quite unbearable to see people who are already victims of conflict and who are in what should be a safe place where they should be able to access medical care, who are sitting around, waiting to die unless something changes drastically to allow them to survive.” “.

An analysis of the World Food Program and other UN agencies claim that one in four households in Gaza already faces “catastrophic levels of hunger” and warns of the risk of “famine” in the next six months if the conflict continues and no more aid arrives.

“It’s too late. We are late. There is not enough food. Every single person I talk to, everywhere I go in Gaza, is hungry. The moment is now. We are dealing with hungry people, adults, children. It is unbearable. Everywhere we go, people ask for food, even in the hospital, I walk through the emergency room, someone with an open bleeding wound, with an open fracture, asks for food,” Casey said.

The war in Gaza could overflow and “add more fuel to the fire” of the Syrian conflict

The special envoy for Syria has warned the Security Council that the war in Gaza could overflow and “add more fuel to the fire” of the Syrian conflict.

Geir Pedersen said that In recent weeks the indirect effects have “intensified” of events in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

According to the UN envoy, there have been “multiple airstrikes attributed to Israel throughout Syria,” that left the airports of Damascus and Aleppo out of service. Currently, only Latakia airport is operational, affecting both civilian air traffic and UN humanitarian operations.

Additionally, there are multiple reports of missiles launched from southern Syria over the occupied Syrian Golan towards Israel, and from Israeli army fire.

They are also produced almost daily attacks on US positions in northeastern Syria.

Pedersen called on all actors, “Syrian and non-Syrian,” to act with maximum restraint.

“No one should be under any illusions that this worrying new normal of continued escalation is in any way sustainable.”. Any major escalation would have devastating consequences “in a deeply fragile situation, in which de facto authorities and the presence and actions of foreign armies are key features of the panorama,” declared.

Up to 300,000 people flee fighting in Sudan’s second city

Up to 300,000 people have fled Sudan’s second largest city, Wad Madani, in Aj Jazirah state, after fighting spread to the area.

Almost half a million men, women and children had taken refuge in that state after the crisis began in April. Thousands of people now see each other forced to move again, many of them in panic, fleeing the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces that broke out on the outskirts of Wad Madani on December 15.

According to UNICEF at least 150,000 children They have fled their homes in less than a week. The outbreak of fighting in Al Jazirah means that more than half of Sudan’s states – ten of 18 – are suffering from active conflict.

“This is a human tragedy of immense proportions, which aggravates the country’s already serious humanitarian crisis,” declared the director of the International Organization for Migration (OIM), Amy Pope.

WHO prequalifies a second malaria vaccine

© UNICEF/Washington Sigu

The WHO has prequalified a second malaria vaccine for children. It is a prerequisite for its international distribution.

The prequalification of the R21 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, will allow greater access to immunization, since It is a requirement for the Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to acquire them.

This is the second malaria vaccine to be prequalified by the WHO, after RTS, which obtained the status in July 2022. Both have proven to be safe and effective and are expected to have a major impact on public health.

Almost half a million children die each year in Africa from this disease. Worldwide, it is estimated that in 2022 there will be 249 million cases of malaria and 608,000 deaths from this disease in 85 countries.

2023-12-21 18:06:59
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