Gaza surgeries halted due to 'malnutrition and low equipment'
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Al Jazeera
20 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
UN report reveals global hunger falls, but food insecurity rises in Africa
Global hunger levels declined for a third consecutive year in 2024, according to a new United Nations report, as better access to food in South America and India offset deepening malnutrition and climate shocks in parts of Africa and the Middle East. Around 673 million people, or 8.2 percent of the world's population, experienced hunger in 2024, down from 8.5 percent in 2023, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, jointly prepared by five UN agencies. The agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The agencies said the report focused on chronic, long-term problems and did not fully reflect the impact of acute crises brought on by specific events and wars, including Israel's war on Gaza. 'Conflict continues to drive hunger from Gaza to Sudan and beyond,' UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks delivered by video link from a UN food summit in Ethiopia on Monday, adding that 'hunger further feeds future instability and undermines peace'. The WHO has warned that malnutrition in the besieged Palestinian enclave has reached 'alarming levels' since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2. The blockade was partially lifted in May, but only a trickle of aid has been allowed to enter since then, despite warnings about mass starvation from the UN and aid organisations. Hunger rate falls in South America, southern Asia In 2024, the most significant progress was reported in South America and southern Asia, according to the UN report. In South America, the hunger rate fell to 3.8 percent in 2024 from 4.2 percent in 2023. In southern Asia, it fell to 11 percent from 12.2 percent. Progress in South America was underpinned by improved agricultural productivity and social programmes, such as school meals, Maximo Torero, the chief economist at the FAO, told news agency Reuters. In southern Asia, it was mostly due to new data from India showing more people with access to healthy diets. The overall 2024 hunger numbers were still higher than the 7.5 percent recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Hunger more prevalent in Africa The picture was very different in Africa, where productivity gains were not keeping up with high population growth and the impacts of conflict, extreme weather and inflation. In 2024, more than one in five people on the continent, or 307 million people, were chronically undernourished, meaning hunger is more prevalent than it was 20 years ago. According to the current projection, 512 million people in the world may be chronically undernourished in 2030, with nearly 60 percent of them to be found in Africa, the report said. 'We must urgently reverse this trajectory,' said the FAO's Torero. A major mark of distress is the number of Africans unable to afford a healthy diet. While the global figure fell from 2.76 billion in 2019 to 2.6 billion in 2024, the number increased in Africa from 864 million to just over one billion during the same period. That means the vast majority of Africans are unable to eat well on the continent of 1.5 billion people. Inequalities The UN report also highlighted 'persistent inequalities' with women and rural communities most affected, which widened last year over 2023. 'Despite adequate global food production, millions of people go hungry or are malnourished because safe and nutritious food is not available, not accessible or, more often, not affordable,' it said. The gap between global food price inflation and overall inflation peaked in January 2023, driving up the cost of diets and hitting low-income nations hardest, the report said. The report also said that overall adult obesity rose to nearly 16 percent in 2022, from 12 percent in 2012.
Al Jazeera
21 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US judge blocks Trump's effort to defund reproductive health organisation
A United States federal judge has ruled against President Donald Trump's effort to defund Planned Parenthood, a reproductive health services organisation that has long attracted conservative ire. In a decision on Monday, US District Judge Indira Talwani ruled that Planned Parenthood clinics must continue to receive reimbursements for Medicaid, a government health programme for the poor. 'Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,' Talwani stated in her Monday order. 'In particular, restricting Members' ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.' Planned Parenthood had filed a lawsuit over a provision in a recent Republican tax and spending bill that cut off Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers who received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023. The US already prevents federal funds from paying for abortion services, and organisations that provide abortions, such as Planned Parenthood, also offer reproductive health services such as contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing. The organisation estimated that the provision in the bill could result in the closure of 200 clinics across 24 states, with more than one million patients at risk of losing coverage. Conservative politicians have long sought to restrict access to federal funds for Planned Parenthood, the country's largest abortion provider, as part of a larger push to roll back access to reproductive health services. Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, a previous 1973 decision that had established abortion as a constitutional right, in June 2022, numerous Republican-led states have passed new restrictions on abortion or banned it entirely. 'Today, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction, blocking the provision in the reconciliation law that unconstitutionally 'defunds' Planned Parenthood from going back into effect,' Planned Parenthood said in a statement on Monday. 'This means that patients can use Medicaid at Planned Parenthood health centers, and Planned Parenthood health centers can receive reimbursements for the essential services they provide.'
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Al Jazeera
Baby dies from malnutrition as Trump warns of ‘real starvation' in Gaza
At least 14 Palestinians, including two children, have died from hunger and malnutrition in Gaza in 24 hours, according to health authorities, as United States President Donald Trump says there are signs of 'real starvation' in the besieged territory. The deaths pushed the number of those who have died from malnutrition since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 to 147, including 88 children, the Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Monday. Most of the deaths have occurred in recent weeks as a hunger crisis has gripped the territory due to Israel's severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel imposed a total blockade on the territory in March, which was partially lifted in May. But only a trickle of aid has been allowed to enter since then despite warnings from the United Nations and aid organisations of mass starvation. Before a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland on Monday, Trump said Israel 'has a lot of responsibility' for the situation in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had denied that on Sunday, saying, 'There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.' Asked by reporters whether he agreed with Netanyahu's remarks, Trump said, 'I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.' Starmer, standing next to Trump, said, 'We've got to get that ceasefire' in Gaza and called it 'a desperate situation'. Trump said among the issues he would discuss with Starmer would be the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The comments come after the Israeli military said it would pause attacks in some parts of Gaza and authorised new corridors for humanitarian deliveries to increase the flow of badly needed aid. The decision was welcomed by the UN, but the organisation's humanitarian chief said the deliveries need to be scaled up. Baby formula shortage The warning was made as a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Al Jazeera on Monday that an infant named Muhammad Ibrahim Adas died from malnutrition due to a shortage of baby formula. Gaza's Government Media Office said an extreme shortage of baby formula could cause tens of thousands of malnourished infants like Muhammad to slowly die. 'There are over 40,000 infants under one year old in Gaza currently at risk of slow death due to this brutal and suffocating blockade,' the office said on Monday, accusing Israel of blocking entry of the product for 150 days. 'We urgently demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all crossings and the swift entry of baby formula and humanitarian aid,' it continued. 'A drop in the ocean' As more aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday through the Karem Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) and the Zikim road in the north, 'devastated Palestinians jumped on these trucks and took whatever they had,' Al Jazeera's Hind Khoudary said, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. 'When asked why they jumped on the trucks, the Palestinians said they did not have time to wait for the food. They said their children have been starving for days, and they do not have any other option than jumping on these trucks,' Khoudary said. 'This shows how desperate Palestinians are and how they were deprived of their basic necessities. Now we are expecting more trucks to enter today.' Israel's decision to allow more aid into Gaza has been welcomed by the UN, but officials warned that severe restrictions continued to block lifesaving deliveries. 'This is a welcome step in the right direction,' Tom Fletcher, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told Al Jazeera. 'But clearly, we need to get in vast amounts of aid at a much, much greater scale than we've been able to do so far.' Fletcher said deliveries overall have been just 'a drop in the ocean' of what is needed. 'We can't just simply turn up and drive through. That's what we should be allowed to do, that's what international law demands, but we're not yet at that point,' he said, citing ongoing security risks, closed crossings, visa rejections and customs delays. As the hunger crisis deepens, Israeli forces have continued to launch attacks across Gaza, killing at least 65 people on Monday, including 23 who were seeking aid, medical sources told Al Jazeera. More than 1,000 Palestinians seeking aid have been killed by Israeli forces near distribution sites run by the US- and Israeli-backed GHF, which launched operations in late May. The GHF has been heavily criticised by the UN and other humanitarian organisations for failing to provide enough aid and for the dire security situation at and around its aid distribution sites. Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said: 'What Israel describes as 'humanitarian pauses' are, in fact, limited and seen as unilateral suspensions of military activities that usually last for a few hours and are confined to select areas,' Abu Azzoum said. 'These pauses, as we have seen, lack international oversight or any sort of coordination with humanitarian agencies,' he said. Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has conducted its offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the day Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel killed 1,139 people and resulted in more than 200 people being taken captive. The war has since killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for its war on the enclave.
