Sudan refugees face cholera outbreak
The first cholera cases in Tawila were detected in early June in the village of Tabit, about 25 kilometres south, said Sylvain Penicaud, a project coordinator for French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). "After two weeks, we started identifying cases directly in Tawila, particularly in the town's displacement camps", he said.
In the past month, more than 1,500 cases have been treated in Tawila alone, he said, while the UN's children agency says around 300 of the town's children have contracted the disease since April. Across North Darfur state, more than 640,000 children under the age of five are at risk, according to Unicef. — AFP
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5 days ago
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WHO demands more aid in devastated Gaza
GENEVA: The UN health agency on Tuesday said Israel should let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation in Gaza before it seizes control of Gaza City. Israel has said its military would "take control" of Gaza City in a plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet that sparked a wave of global criticism. "We want to stock up and we all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' — well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace", said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization's representative in the Palestinian territories. Fifty-two per cent of medicines were running at zero stock, Peeperkorn said, speaking from Jerusalem. UN agencies warned last month that famine was unfolding in Gaza, with Israel severely restricting aid entry. Peeperkorn said the WHO was able to bring in fewer supplies than it wanted "due to the cumbersome procedures" and products "still denied" entry — a topic of constant negotiation with the Israeli authorities. "We want to as quickly stock up hospitals... following the news — the whole discussion about an incursion in Gaza", he said. "We currently cannot do that... We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in". Peeperkorn said only 50 per cent of hospitals and 38 per cent of primary health care centres were functioning and that too partially. Bed occupancy has reached 240 per cent capacity in the Al Shifa hospital and 300 per cent Al Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza. "The overall health situation remains catastrophic", he said. "Hunger and malnutrition continue to ravage Gaza". Peeperkorn said 148 people died from the effects of malnutrition this year, citing August 5 as the cut-off date. Nearly 12,000 children aged under five were identified to be suffering from acute malnutrition in July — the highest monthly figure recorded to date in Gaza, Peeperkorn said. These include 2,562 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, of whom 40 were hospitalised at stabilisation centres. Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Gaza City have intensified in recent days, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approving plans to expand the war there. The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area, but according to the civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal, air strikes on Gaza City have been increasing for the past three days. Bassal said the residential neighbourhoods of Zeitoun and Sabra have been hit "with very heavy air strikes targeting civilian homes, possibly including high-rise buildings". "For the third consecutive day, the Israeli occupation is intensifying its bombardment", said the spokesman. "The Israeli occupation is using all types of weapons in that area — bombs, drones and also highly explosive munitions that cause massive destruction to civilian homes", he added. Bassal said that at least 24 people had been killed across Gaza on Tuesday, including several casualties caused by strikes on Gaza City. "The bombardment has been extremely intense for the past two days. With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped", said Majed al Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun. Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with United Nations-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in besieged Gaza. Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to secure the release of the remaining hostages, as well as over his plans to expand the war, which he has vowed to do with or without the backing of Israel's allies. Israel's offensive has killed at least 61,499 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, whose toll the United Nations considers reliable. — AFP
Observer
5 days ago
- Observer
Sudan refugees face cholera outbreak
TAWILA: In the cholera-stricken refugee camps of western Sudan, every second is infected by fear. Faster than a person can boil water over an open flame, the flies descend and everything is contaminated once more. Cholera is ripping through the camps of Tawila in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been left with nothing but the water they can boil, to serve as both disinfectant and medicine. The first cholera cases in Tawila were detected in early June in the village of Tabit, about 25 kilometres south, said Sylvain Penicaud, a project coordinator for French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). "After two weeks, we started identifying cases directly in Tawila, particularly in the town's displacement camps", he said. In the past month, more than 1,500 cases have been treated in Tawila alone, he said, while the UN's children agency says around 300 of the town's children have contracted the disease since April. Across North Darfur state, more than 640,000 children under the age of five are at risk, according to Unicef. — AFP
Observer
04-08-2025
- Observer
More Gazans die seeking aid and from hunger
At least 40 Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Gaza on Monday, including 10 seeking aid, health authorities said, adding another five had died of starvation in what humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine. The 10 died in two separate incidents near aid sites belonging to the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in central and southern Gaza, local medics said. The United Nations says more than 1,000 people have been killed trying to receive aid in the enclave since the GHF began operating in May 2025, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites. "Everyone who goes there comes back either with a bag of flour or carried back (on a wooden stretcher) as a martyr, or injured. No one comes back safe," said 40-year-old Palestinian Bilal Thari. He was among mourners at Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital on Monday who had gathered to collect the bodies of their loved ones killed a day earlier by Israeli fire as they sought aid, according to Gaza's health officials. At least 13 Palestinians were killed on Sunday while waiting for the arrival of UN aid trucks at the Zikim crossing on the Israeli border with the northern Gaza Strip, the officials said. At the hospital, some bodies were wrapped in thick patterned blankets because white shrouds, which hold special significance in Islamic burials, were in short supply due to continued Israeli border restrictions and the mounting number of daily deaths, Palestinians said. "We don't want war, we want peace, we want this misery to end. We are out on the streets, we all are hungry, we are all in bad shape, women are out there on the streets, we have nothing available for us to live a normal life like all human beings, there's no life," Thari said. There was no immediate comment by Israel on Sunday's incident. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had not fired earlier on Monday in the vicinity of the aid distribution centre in the southern Gaza Strip, but it did not elaborate further. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he would convene his security cabinet this week to discuss how the military should proceed in Gaza to meet all his government's war goals, which include defeating Hamas and releasing the captives. Meanwhile, five more people died of starvation or malnutrition over the past 24 hours, Gaza's health ministry said on Monday. The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from hunger to 180, including 93 children, since the war began. UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease access to it. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said that during the past week, over 23,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by UN and other international organisations.
