Musings From Abroad

WFP announces ‘scale-up’ of food supplies to Sudan

Published

5 hours ago

November 27, 2024

A World Food Programme spokeswoman has revealed that more than 700 trucks are en route to famine-stricken regions of Sudan as part of a significant expansion after approval from the Sudanese government.

Since April 2023, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in combat, resulting in widespread sickness and severe starvation throughout the nation. The army is accused of causing bureaucratic delays, while the RSF is accused of obstructing assistance supplies via stealing.

“In total, the trucks will carry about 17,500 tons of food assistance, enough to feed 1.5 million people for one month,” WFP Sudan spokesperson Leni Kinzli told a press briefing in Geneva.

“We’ve received around 700 clearances from the government in Sudan, from the Humanitarian Aid Commission, to start to move and transport assistance to some of these hard-to-reach areas,” she added, saying the start of the dry season was another factor enabling the scale-up.

According to her, the WFP fleet will be prominently marked in the hopes of facilitating access. A portion of the food is meant for 14 famine-affected or famine-at-risk regions of the nation, including the Darfur region’s Zamzam camp.

Crowds of people who had resorted to eating crushed peanut shells that are often fed to animals cheered when the first meal came there on Friday, according to Kinzli.

According to her, a second convoy for the camp is presently around 300 kilometres (186 miles) distant.

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of Sudan’s sovereign council, announced Monday that he would permit U.N. agencies to use the airports in El Obeid, Kadugli, and Damazine—all of which are under army control and cut off from the fighting—as humanitarian centres to help with supplies.

Related Topics:Featured Food Supply Sudan WFP

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Musings From Abroad

EU withdraws Niger diplomat after junta accuses it of mismanaging aid

Published

3 days ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The European External Action Service (EEAS) has announced that the European Union would return its ambassador from Niger after the governing military in the nation questioned how an EU team handled humanitarian supplies intended for flood victims.

In a statement released on Friday, the junta in Niger accused the EU ambassador in the West African nation of distributing a 1.3 million euro flood relief grant to many foreign nongovernmental organisations in an opaque way and without working with the government.

Consequently, it mandated an audit of the fund’s administration.

“The European Union expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said.

“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”

Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a 2023 coup.

Musings From Abroad

Mpox remains health emergency, WHO insists

Published

3 days ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has insisted that the Mpox epidemic remains a public health emergency.

WHO first declared an emergency when a new strain of mpox spread from the severely affected Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighbouring countries in August.

The WHO Director-General has decided that the increase in mpox still qualifies as a public health emergency of worldwide significance after the WHO called a meeting of its Emergency Committee and followed its recommendations.

According to WHO, the decision was made in light of the growing number and ongoing geographic dispersion of cases, field operating difficulties, and the requirement to establish and maintain a coordinated response across nations and partners.

Mpox is a virus that is spread by close contact and usually manifests as pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms. Although it is typically minor, it can be fatal.

More than 1,000 suspected deaths and more than 46,000 suspected cases have been reported this year throughout Africa, primarily in Congo.

The WHO’s highest level of warning, known as a “public health emergency of international concern,” was previously used to describe a worldwide epidemic of a different type of mpox in 2022–2023.

This year’s notice was issued in response to the transmission of a novel viral variation known as clade Ib. Among other nations, cases of this variation have been verified in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and India.

Following criticism for moving too slowly on vaccinations, WHO approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine in September and listed Japan’s KM Biologics vaccine for emergency use earlier this month.