Aid to Gaza still ‘drop in the ocean’: WFP

- UN declared
famine in Gaza, blames Israel's obstruction of aid
- 100 trucks
enter daily for 2.1 million people
- Food is being
seized from trucks out of desperation
The World Food Programme warned Tuesday that the aid Israel is
allowing to enter Gaza remains a "drop in the ocean", days after
famine was formally declared in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
The United Nations declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming the
"systematic obstruction" of aid by Israel during its nearly two-year
war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Carl Skau, WFP's chief operating officer, said that over the
past two weeks, there has been a "slight uptick" in aid entering,
averaging around 100 trucks per day.
"That's still a drop in the ocean when we're talking about
assisting some 2.1 million people," Skau told AFP during a visit to New
Delhi.
"We need a completely different level of assistance to be able to turn
this trajectory of famine around."
The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification
Initiative (IPC) said famine was affecting 500,000 people in Gaza.
It defines famine as when 20 percent of households face extreme
food shortages, more than 30 percent of children under five are acutely
malnourished, and there is an excess mortality threshold of at least two in
10,000 people a day.
Skau painted a grim picture of Gaza.
"The levels of desperation are so high that people keep
grabbing the food off our trucks," the former Swedish diplomat said.
"And when we're not able to do proper orderly
distributions, we're not sure that we're reaching the most vulnerable -- the
women and the children furthest out in the camps," he said.
"And they're the ones we really need to reach now, if we
want to avoid a full-scale catastrophe."
STARVATION
PHASE
But Skau also warned that Gaza was only one of many global
crises, with multiple famine zones emerging simultaneously as donor funding
collapses.
Some 320 million people globally are now acutely food insecure —
nearly triple the figure from five years ago. At the same time, WFP funding has
dropped by 40 percent compared with last year.
"Right now, we're seeing a number of crises that, at any
other time in history, would have gotten the headlines and been the top issue
discussed," he said.
That includes Sudan, where 25 million people are "acutely
food insecure", including 10 million in what Skau called "the
starvation phase".
"It's the largest hunger and humanitarian crisis that we
probably have seen in decades -- since the end of the 1980s with the Ethiopia
famine," he said.
"We have 10 spots in Sudan where famine has been confirmed.
It's a disaster of unimaginable magnitude."
He detailed how a UN aid convoy in June tried to break the siege
by paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of Sudan's city of El-Fasher in
Darfur, only for the truck convoy to be hit by a deadly drone attack.
Neighbouring South Sudan is also struggling, he said, suggesting
"there might well be a third confirmation of a famine".
"That will be unprecedented", he said, citing
"extremely expensive" operations in the young nation's Upper Nile
state, where, with few roads, aid must be delivered by helicopters or airdrops.
"This is maybe the number one crisis where you have on one
hand staggering needs and, frankly, no resources available", he said.
At the same time, traditional donors have cut aid.
US President Donald Trump slashed foreign aid after taking
office, dealing a heavy blow to humanitarian operations worldwide.
"We are in a funding crunch, and the challenge here is that
the needs keep going up", Skau said.
While conflict is the "main driver" of rising hunger
levels, other causes include "extreme weather events due to climate
change" and the economic shock of trade wars.
"Our worry is that we are now cutting from the hungry to
give to the starving," he said.
Skau said the organisation was actively seeking new donors.
"We're engaging countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil,
and others, beyond the more traditional donors, to see how they can also
assist".
















