Officials say some water and electricity facilities were damaged by projectiles amid the US-Israel bombing, and asked people to conserve resources, but no widespread outages have been reported so far.

Tehran, Iran – “The war might last weeks, so my family and I will only leave if it gets too bad. For now, life goes on,” says Sepehr, a resident of eastern Tehran.

The booming sound of explosions has been a daily reality this week where he lives, at times leaving thick smoke billowing to the horizon and shaking windows, he told Al Jazeera, asking to remain anonymous due to security reasons.

The scenes are similar across Tehran, a sprawling city of nearly 10 million people, with United States and Israeli missiles raining down in quick succession during waves of attacks that have taken place at all hours of the day since the start of the war on Saturday morning, which has killed more than 1,000 people.

Iranian officials said on Thursday that some water and electricity facilities were damaged by projectiles and asked people to conserve resources, but no widespread outages have been reported so far.

The streets of the capital are noticeably quieter and less congested than usual, and many businesses are closed. However, the basic necessities remain largely available, both in person and through online orders.

“When the bombing runs seem finished for a while, I go for a short walk once during the day to get some essentials from the local shops. There are usually queues for bread, which are not too long, and there are queues at some petrol stations,” said Marjan, who lives in a western neighbourhood.

“Except for a few items that might be in shorter supply, the shops mostly have everything you want for now, but who knows what could happen later. Either way, the prices are breaking people’s backs,” she said.

Two days before the start of the war, the Statistical Centre of Iran (SCI) and the Central Bank of Iran released separate reports that painted a grim picture of how the daily livelihoods of 90 million people had been affected by runaway prices.

The SCI put annual inflation in the Iranian month of Bahman, which ended on February 19, at 68.1 percent, while the Central Bank put it at 62.2 percent. These were some of the highest inflation rates recorded since the pre-Islamic revolution of 1979 that birthed the incumbent theocratic establishment, stoking further concern of potentially looming hyperinflation.

Iran has one of the highest food inflation rates in the world, which stood at a whopping 105 percent by the end of last month, according to the SCI.

That included a 207 percent inflation rate for cooking oil, 117 percent for red meat, 108 percent for eggs and dairy products, 113 percent for fruits and 142 percent for bread and corn.

First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref told state media on Wednesday that the government had concerns about providing sufficient medicine and medical equipment, “but fortunately today conditions are good”.

This comes as Iran’s medicine market has been in heavy turmoil over recent weeks, with prices skyrocketing and some drugs like antidepressants facing shortages in Tehran and other cities. In some cases, only Iranian-made versions of medicine can be found in the market, with foreign-made counterparts becoming rare.

The government continues to offer a meagre cash subsidy to people to buy essential goods, and recently expanded items purchasable through the scheme to include baby diapers, another item that has more than doubled in price over recent months.

Government officials also continue to emphasise that provincial governors and ministers have been empowered to import essential goods in large quantities with reduced red tape to ensure continuity in case of a lingering war.

The Iranian economy, bruised and isolated after decades of corruption and mismanagement paired with US and United Nations sanctions, is again on pause as its forces launch ballistic missiles and drones across the region amid the war.

The Iranian rial stood at about 1.66 million per US dollar before the war, near an all-time low. The stock market was a sea of red as investors baulked at prospects of an increasingly uncertain future, while traditional assets like gold soared.

World Opinion + ALjazeera

L’article Iranians get by as US, Israeli bombs rain down, internet blocked est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Despite displacement, Gaza families strive to create joy this Ramadan, navigating grief, scarcity, and fragile peace.

At the Bureij refugee area in central Gaza, Maisoon al-Barbarawi welcomes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in her tent.

Simple decorations hang from its worn ceiling, alongside colourful drawings on the fabric walls, prepared by camp residents to mark the arrival of the blessed month.

“We brought you decorations and a small lantern,” Maisoon tells her nine-year-old son, Hasan, smiling with an exhaustion tinged with joy at her ability to buy him a Ramadan lantern.

“My means are limited, but what matters is that the children feel happy,” Maisoon tells Al Jazeera, expressing cautious optimism about the month’s arrival.

“I wanted these decorations to be a way out of the atmosphere of grief and sadness that has accompanied us over the past two years during the war.”

Maisoon, known to everyone as Umm Mohammed, is 52 years old and a mother of two children.

“My older son is 15, and the younger is nine years. They are the most precious things I have.”

“Every day they are safe is a day worth gratitude and joy,” she says with pride mixed with fear, referring to the terror that has accompanied her throughout the war at the thought of losing them.

Like other Palestinians in Gaza, what distinguishes this Ramadan is the relative calm that has come with the current ceasefire, compared with the previous two years, when Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, was at its peak.

“The situation is not completely calm,” Maisoon explains. Everyone knows the war hasn’t truly stopped; shelling still happens from time to time. But compared to the height of the war, things are less intense.”

Maisoon participates in camp administration activities, helping prepare bread and arrange dates and water for distribution, minutes before the call to prayer on the first day of Ramadan.

“This is the third Ramadan we’ve spent in displacement. We lost our homes, our families, and many loved ones.”

“But here in the camp, we have neighbours and friends who share the same pain and suffering, and we all want to support one another socially.”

Maisoon lost her home in southeastern Gaza at the beginning of the war and was forced to flee with her husband, Hassouna, and their children, moving between camps before eventually settling in Bureij under what she describes as “very bad conditions”.

“We are trying to create life and joy out of nothing. Ramadan and Eid come and go, but our situation remains the same,” she says after a brief pause.

‘Wounded from within’

Maisoon’s words fluctuate between optimism and fear, but she insists that Ramadan is “a blessing”, despite everything around her.

On the first day of Ramadan, she had not yet decided what she would cook for her family, as her limited means would only allow for a modest meal.

But she had already prepared her prayers and wishes before breaking her fast.

“I will pray that the war never returns. That is my daily prayer: that things calm down completely and that the army withdraw from our land,” she says, pointing to bullet holes in her tent caused by gunfire from an Israeli quadcopter drone days earlier.

Fear of the war’s return during Ramadan is not unique to Maisoon, but is shared by many across the Gaza Strip, who worry about a renewed escalation, similar to last year when fighting resumed on March 19, 2025, coinciding with the second week of Ramadan.

That renewed war was accompanied by the closure of crossings and a ban on food aid entering the enclave, triggering a severe food crisis and humanitarian famine that lasted until last September.

“People these days keep talking about stocking up. They tell us: store flour, store food… the war is coming back,” Maisoun says anxiously.

“Last Ramadan was famine and war at the same time. I spent all my money during the previous famine.”

“My little son used to pray for death because he craved food. Can you imagine?”

Bitter memories

Gaza enters this year’s Ramadan under a “ceasefire” that began on October 10, 2025.

That truce remains fragile, but reports from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicate a relative improvement in the availability of certain food items, compared with periods of severe escalation and closures.

Commercial activity has partially resumed, and aid has entered at a steadier pace, though the flow remains inconsistent and subject to restrictions and logistical obstacles.

Despite a broader range of goods appearing in markets, prices remain high, and purchasing power is severely weakened, with large segments of the population still reliant on humanitarian assistance to meet basic needs.

Many Palestinians in Gaza continue to rely on aid organisations to eat.

Hanan al-Attar is one of them. She received a food parcel from a relief organisation on the first day of Ramadan.

Opening the package with a broad smile, she celebrates its contents while her grandchildren gather around her.

“This is fava beans, halva, dates, tahini, oil, lentils, beans, spreadable cheese, mortadella, mashallah, an excellent parcel,” Hanan tells her daughter standing nearby.

“This will be perfect for tomorrow’s suhoor,” she says, referring to the predawn meal before Muslims begin fasting for the day.

Hanan, 55, is a mother of eight who fled to Deir el-Balah a year ago from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, one of the hardest-hit places by Israel during the war.

She tells Al Jazeera that she will have to depend on whatever aid arrives to sustain her during Ramadan, due to her difficult economic situation.

“Today, thank God, we received assistance. This will ease my worry about what we will break our fast with,” says Hanan, who shares a tent with 15 family members, including children and grandchildren.

Smiling, she admits she secretly set aside a small amount of money to prepare a tray of potatoes with minced meat and rice for the first iftar.

“I saved a small amount to buy a kilo of meat tomorrow. Fasting requires protein,” she says in a low voice, noting that preparing a meal now depends entirely on what is available that same day, as storage conditions are nearly nonexistent.

“As you can see, there is no electricity, no infrastructure, no refrigerators to store vegetables or meat if we buy them.”

“We purchase what we need day by day so the food does not spoil.”

Yet the other side of Ramadan for Hanan is measured not by preparation but by those absent from the table.

Tears fill her eyes as she mentions her two sons in their late twenties who were killed in a strike last year, one leaving behind a daughter not yet two years old.

“This is the first Ramadan after the martyrdom of my sons Abdullah and Mohammed,” she says through tears.

“You feel the emptiness. It’s hard. When the family gathers and members are missing, you feel deep pain.”

Cooking in the tent: Fire, wind, and plastic

Still, Hanan’s sorrow is briefly interrupted by the practicalities of preparing the cooking space.

“Unfortunately, Ramadan hasn’t changed our reality. We’ve been cooking over open fire for two years. The wind blows out the flame, and my son tries to shield it with plastic.”

She relies on firewood due to prolonged shortages of cooking gas.

“I managed to fill an eight-kilo gas cylinder two months ago and refused to use it until Ramadan,” she says, pulling out the hidden cylinder.

“Gas is like treasure for us. I planned to save it for suhoor or something quick. It would be difficult to light a fire at dawn.”

“In the end, everything passes. What matters is that we remain together in health and safety, and that we do not live through famine or war again,” she adds, her voice shifting to prayers for peace.

The memory of famine further deepens her anxiety.

She repeats the word “difficult” as she recalls the months when prices soared and food disappeared after last Ramadan.

She describes grinding lentils to replace flour and mixing them with pasta or rice to feed as many family members as possible.

To make the bread stretch, she cut it into smaller portions.

“I make it smaller, so it’s enough for everyone.”

And yet, her final wish, repeated like a prayer, echoes what many in Gaza seek this Ramadan: nothing more than “goodness and peace”, and a return home from displacement.

“May this Ramadan be one of goodness and peace for everyone… and may we return to our homes and our land.”

World Opinion + ALjazeera

L’article Gaza welcomes Ramadan amid fragile ‘ceasefire’ and fears of renewed war est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The magnitude 6.8 quake that struck late on Friday southwest of the city of Marrakesh has killed nearly 2,681 people and injured 2,501 others, many seriously, according to official figures.

Rescuers in Morocco have been using their bare hands as desperate search efforts continue for survivors of Friday’s powerful earthquake.

Fortunately food supply can never a problem in Morocco❤️#earthquake #Maroc #moroccoearthquake #Morocco #earthquakemorocco #pray #hope #god #Marrakesh #MarrakeshEarthquake #Solidarity #مراكش pic.twitter.com/u2sdySaI21

— Maaz ShaheenⓂ️ (@MaazShaheen4) September 11, 2023

A mother cries in pain after she received the news of the tragic loss of her children in the devastating earthquake that struck #Morocco. 🇲🇦💔 pic.twitter.com/yrPrmDZ0V1

— PALESTINE SUNBIRD 🇵🇸 (@SBPal_Eng) September 11, 2023

Morocco’s government is under pressure to accept more international aid, as rescuers battle with exhaustion.

So far, it has accepted help from only four countries – Spain, the UK, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

In Bahamas after horrible Hurricane Dorian in 2019, we did this across many islands…drop off food & water and bring back to hospitals the people that were injured. We can maximize the resources and take care of food and medical together! 🙏#ChefsForMorocco pic.twitter.com/XNZWUvlPiL

— José Andrés 🇺🇸🇪🇸🇺🇦 (@chefjoseandres) September 11, 2023

Here are some organisations that are collecting donations to help the people of Morocco.

As heroic rescue missions continue around the clock, sometimes with people digging through rubble with their bare hands in towns and villages that are virtually demolished, there are organisations collecting donations to accelerate lifesaving efforts.

#Maroc #Morocco #Marruecos #Fas #earthquakes #المغرب pic.twitter.com/Xy0yWdEOcm

— Neslihan Atagül Fan (@kneslihanatagul) September 11, 2023

This video just sent to me by the @WCKitchen team in Morocco.. WCK will always be getting meals to people after disaster in whatever way needed.. cars, food truck, boats, helicopter… and at the same time as bringing meals we can also help with necessary evacuations for people… pic.twitter.com/t7TDY0by9Z

— José Andrés 🇺🇸🇪🇸🇺🇦 (@chefjoseandres) September 11, 2023

Here are some of them:

Bank Al-Maghrib

Mohammed VI of Morocco called for the creation of a bank account supported by the country’s Treasury and Bank Al-Maghrib, the Moroccan central bank, to receive relief contributions from citizens and the global community, including private and public institutions who wish to help.

pic.twitter.com/5pqGVTuX4g

— Bank Al-Maghrib (@BankAlMaghrib) September 10, 2023

Banque Alimentaire du Maroc (Morocco Food Bank)

The non-profit collects food from various donors and redistributes it through a network of associations and social protection institutions. They shared their bank details on social media, encouraging people to support their efforts.

Donations are also possible through their website here.

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Une publication partagée par Banque Alimentaire (@banquealimentaire)

Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

The independent organisation is providing medical care and equipment to affected areas and is mobilising teams to assess needs in the aftermath. It is accepting donations here.

GlobalGiving

The US-based non-profit agency that connects donors with grassroots projects around the world is also raising money for victims. According to the organisation, the funds will be allocated to provide food, water and medicine to survivors, in addition to shelter and temporary housing.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC)

The IFRC, which has a Morocco-based team, is also accepting general donations for its Disaster Relief Emergency Fund, as they “assess the need for an emergency appeal” in grief-stricken Morocco.

In a statement, the organisation said that it disbursed one million Swiss francs (more than $1.1m) from their Disaster Response Emergency Fund to support Moroccan Red Crescent activity on the ground.

UNICEF USA

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres confirmed that the United Nations is ready to assist the government of Morocco.

According to the UN, consultations are ongoing to identify areas where the UN and its partners can provide support in the coming hours and days.

UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, is working to support affected children and families in Morocco.

World Opinions + Aljazeera

L’article How to support Morocco’s earthquake victims.. Video est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Is there any such thing as a “salt tooth”? We are familiar with a sweet tooth, and sugar cravings, along with the negative effects of those. We are broadly aware of the downsides of too much salt, including high blood pressure, which puts pressure on the blood vessels, the heart and the kidneys. It can also lead to water retention.

The British Heart Foundation concluded last year that if everyone brought their consumption down to the World Health Organization salt limit of 5g a day by 2030, the result would be up to 1.4m fewer new cases of high blood pressure, 135,000 fewer new cases of coronary heart disease, up to 49,000 fewer new cases of stroke and more than 450,000 extra years in good health.

But salt is not considered a dietary luxury, even though 40% of people, according to a YouGov poll, would put crisps way above chocolate in the treat hierarchy. We don’t tend to police how much we eat – at least, not as rigorously as with sugar – or question whether we are innocently listening to our bodies, which need some salt for basic muscle function, or are in the grip of a compulsion.

A salt tooth is quite unlike a sweet tooth in that it doesn’t create an appetite for itself at the hormone level. Sugar has a well-documented impact on blood glucose, which, unhelpfully, makes you want more sugar. If salt drives an appetite for anything, it’s lager. But salt does make your palate acclimatise, so that the more you eat, the more you need to get the same salty hit. This is why chefs can get heavy-handed with it.

It is so incredibly useful in food manufacturing – for palatability, in preservation – that it is unsurprising, particularly where the ingredients are cheap and need to be camouflaged, to find high levels of salt in most processed foods. This creates a feedback loop between manufacturers and chains, as Henry Dimbleby, the food campaigner and co-founder of Leon, describes: “I think two things may be at play. First, it is clear that we can develop palates that become sensitised to salt, so you can see why there might be a tendency to add more. I have had people complain to me that they took salt out of their pizza and customers switched to a saltier competitor. If you have significant chunks of vegetables or meat in a dish, the perceived saltiness can also go down over time as the salt moves out of the sauce and into the meat or veg, where it has less impact on the tongue.”

The WHO estimates that 80% of the salt we consume has been added during a manufacturing process. Indeed, that is probably the easiest way to reduce intake – to stop eating things you didn’t make yourself.

As Sam Bloom, a nutritional therapist, explains: “With salt what is generally more concerning is the fat that is used in conjunction with it, eg salty crisps, fries and fast food. Ready meals are often the worst for hidden salts. Anything that adds flavour that isn’t a spice or herb will probably have salt added to it and is likely to cause cravings… as its flavouring makes you want to eat more. The salt and fat combination in these foods are what cause problems with cholesterol.” She adds: “The salt that people add to a meal made from scratch is much less concerning.”

But the connection between obesity and salt intake runs deeper than KFC. According to Dr Stuart Grice, a geneticist and the chief scientific officer at FitnessGenes, our desire for salt can be genetically driven and “the same genes that lead to a higher intake of salty food, and salt sensitivity, have been linked with obesity”. Particular genetic variants affect the way different people perceive the taste of salt, Grice continues, which intuitively makes sense of the connection between salt craving and obesity; if you find salt more delicious, you probably find food more delicious. Then there is a second-tier link, whereby “salt is often found in processed and high-fat foods, which are craved by individuals with genetic makeups that increase their risk of weight gain,” Grice says.

Nutritionists’ language of substitution – when you want a Snickers, try a banana – has always struck me as demonstrating a poor understanding of cravings. If the desire were fungible, it wouldn’t be a craving; you would just be hungry. Yet Grice’s careful description of what you could have instead of a pub salad (crisps mixed with peanuts) is convincing: “When a salt craving hits, avoid going straight for salty snack foods such as crisps and instead ensure you are well hydrated. Seek out whole foods, such as olives and leafy greens, which are rich in polyphenols, magnesium and calcium. These foods will help you alleviate salt cravings, which may often be due to a desire for nutrient-rich food.”

Your body can tell you things, sure, but it doesn’t have a large vocabulary. You may think it is shouting “salt”, but it’s actually shouting “minerals”.

Last week, I had crisps for five consecutive meals. Just in case you want to know whose side I am on.

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L’article Do you have a ‘salt tooth’? How to recognise it – and feed your cravings healthily est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Food aid to Ethiopia has been suspended after the discovery that humanitarian supplies meant for people in need were being stolen.

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday that it is halting food assistance while it rolled out “enhanced safeguards and controls that will ensure humanitarian food assistance reaches targeted, vulnerable people”. It comes a day after the US Agency for International Development (USAid) said it was doing the same, after a “countrywide review” uncovered “a widespread and coordinated campaign” that was diverting food assistance from Ethiopian people.

“We made the difficult but necessary decision that we cannot move forward with distribution of food assistance until reforms are in place,” said a USAid spokesperson.

More than 20 million people across Ethiopia rely on humanitarian help as civil conflict and the worst drought in four decades grips the country. The US is the largest single donor to the country, supplying aid worth $1.8bn (£1.4bn) in the past fiscal year.

UN and US halt food assistance in the country, where 20 million people rely on aid, in order to investigate ‘diversion’ of supplies

The USAid and the WFP had already suspended food supplies to the northern Tigray region while they investigated reports of stolen aid there. Tigray was the centre of a civil war that ended in November and nearly all of its 6 million people rely on aid.

The humanitarian agencies have not apportioned blame for thefts. However, an internal memo by a group of foreign donors says that Ethiopian government officials are involved.

“Extensive monitoring indicates this diversion of donor-funded food assistance is a coordinated and criminal scheme, which has prevented life-saving food assistance from reaching the most vulnerable,” the document says. “The scheme appears to be orchestrated by federal and regional government of Ethiopia entities, with military units across the country benefiting from humanitarian assistance.”

The document says USAid investigators visited “63 flour mills in seven of Ethiopia’s nine regions” since March where they “witnessed significant diversion” of supplies donated by the US, France, Japan and Ukraine.

Another document posted on USAid’s website in May, and later taken down, detailed instances of US-supplied grain being sold in markets throughout Tigray in March and April. This included enough wheat to feed 134,000 people for a month on sale “in a local grain market and being processed into flour at mills owned by local wholesalers” in the city of Shire, which hosts large numbers of people displaced by the war.

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Ethiopia’s federal government was using some of the stolen aid to feed Tigrayan fighters demobilised as part of the ceasefire. Meanwhile, two humanitarian workers, who also requested anonymity, said rebel Tigray authorities had regularly taken a proportion of beneficiaries’ aid rations at flour mills during the war as a “tax”.

Ethiopia has vowed to hold an investigation “so the perpetrators of such diversion are held to account”.

The WFP has said its Ethiopia country director, Claude Jibidar, is on leave, amid speculation that he had resigned. In a text message to the Guardian, Jibidar would not confirm if he was returning to his post.

Ethiopia experienced devastating famines and conflicts in the 1970s and 1980s. Aid agencies have long struggled to keep their food donations out of combatants’ hands. During the recent conflict, the government faced UN accusations that it restricted the flow of aid to Tigray and used “starvation as a method of warfare”, while the government accused humanitarian agencies of running arms to the Tigray rebels.

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L’article Food aid suspended in Ethiopia after ‘widespread and coordinated’ thievery est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The world is in the grip of an unprecedented hunger crisis. A toxic combination of climate crisis, conflict and Covid had already placed some of the poorest countries under enormous strain, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent grain and fuel prices soaring.

“We thought it couldn’t get any worse,” said David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), in June. “But this war has been devastating.”

Globally, the UN says, the number of people living with hunger, or chronic undernourishment, rose to as many as 828 million last year, an increase of about 150 million since the outbreak of the pandemic. There is a “real danger”, warned Beasley on Wednesday, that the ripple effect of Ukraine will cause it to rise even further in the months ahead – and that some countries will be pushed into famine as a result.

“The result will be global destabilisation, starvation, and mass migration on an unprecedented scale,” he warned. “We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe.”

A toxic combination of climate emergency, conflict and Covid is pushing some of the poorest countries into an acute hunger crisis

What is famine?

In 2004, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization developed the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), as a tracking tool for global hunger. It has become the primary means of identifying famine, with a sliding scale from phase 1 (no or minimal food insecurity) to phase 5 (catastrophe or famine).

It defines a famine as an extreme deprivation of food where “starvation, death, destitution and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident”.

To meet the criteria, an area will have at least 20% of households facing an extreme lack of food, at least 30% of children suffering from acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 a day dying “due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease”.

If a number of households are experiencing famine conditions but not at the required level (20% of the population), or if local malnutrition or mortality levels have not reached the required thresholds for famine, those households will be put in the IPC phase-5 catastrophe category, even if the area as a whole is not in phase-5 famine.

Another term – used by UN agencies, aid organisations and the media – is “famine likely”. It is useful for situations in which, for instance, humanitarian access is limited. This applies to places where, although available information indicates that famine is likely to be unfolding, there is not enough evidence to meet the criteria for a full classification.

Where is famine most likely to occur?

According to the IPC, no area meets the criteria for a phase-5 famine classification. However, several countries – Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen and Afghanistan – have sections of their population living with phase-5 catastrophic levels of hunger.

In Ethiopia last year, 352,000 people facing this level of hunger were living in the north, but the reality of the situation is unclear due to access issues.

In its June to September projection for Somalia, the IPC said there was a reasonable chance of famine unfolding in eight areas of the country in the event of widespread crop failure, food prices continuing to rise and humanitarian aid not being scaled up. About 213,000 people are expected to face catastrophic conditions. In certain districts the signs are bad: in the southern district of Baidoa, for example, home to tens of thousands of displaced people, the acute malnutrition threshold for famine has been breached.

If famine does occur, what is the likely human toll?

It is impossible to say for certain, but history has some lessons. The 1992 famine in Somalia is thought to have killed about 220,000 people, a total surpassed between 2010 and 2012, when another famine claimed nearly 260,000 lives, half of them children. The consensus was that the relief organisations had been too slow to act; by the time a famine had been declared, more than 100,000 people had already died.

The last time a famine was declared – in parts of South Sudan in 2017 – the official famine period lasted just three months and the death toll is thought to have been lower (there are no official figures available), partly as a result of a generous humanitarian response. In 2017-18, as part of that effort, UK government aid to the wider region totalled £861m. In 2021-22, according to Oxfam, aid to the four east African countries most affected by hunger (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan) was just £288m – two-thirds of the figure from the previous crisis in 2017-18..

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L’article Famine: what is it, where will it strike and how should the world respond? est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Prices in the US rose faster than expected last month, as rising energy and food costs pushed inflation to the highest rate since 1981.

The annual inflation rate rose to 8.6% in May, the Labor Department said, after easing in April.

The rising cost of living has been squeezing households and putting pressure on policymakers to bring the issue under control.

The US central bank has been raising interest rates since March.

Analysts had hoped that the moves were starting to work to cool economic activity, easing the price pressures. But the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has driven up the price of oil and commodities like wheat as it disrupts exports from the two countries, has made tackling the problem more difficult.

Food prices were up more than 10% last month compared to May 2021, while energy surged more than 34%.

But Friday’s report showed the increases continue to spread throughout the economy, pushing the cost of everything from airline tickets and clothing to medical services higher.

« So much for the idea that inflation has peaked. Consumer prices blew past expectations – and not in a good way with the 8.6% annual increase the fastest in more than 40 years, » said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

« Worse the increases were nearly ubiquitous. Just no place to hide. »

The US has been grappling with rising prices since last year, when an unexpectedly strong economic rebound from the shock of the pandemic – driven by large doses of US government spending, including direct cheques to households – overwhelmed supplies, prompting companies to raise prices.

Now the war in Ukraine has spread the problem around the world, with Covid related shutdowns in China this spring contributing.

As the rising costs hit household purchasing power and prompt a pullback in spending, officials are warning that growth in many countries is at risk of a sharp downturn.

« The war in Ukraine, lockdowns in China, supply-chain disruptions, and the risk of stagflation are hammering growth. For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid, » World Bank President David Malpass said this week.

US stock markets fell in the wake of the inflation reports, with all three major indexes dropping more than 2%. The falls added to weeks of declines in US shares, as investors become nervous about the path for the economy.

« Even if inflation peaks soon, it’s unlikely to decelerate quickly. » said Richard Flynn. managing director of Charles Schwab UK. « High prices may put pressure on consumer spending into the medium term.

« Add ongoing supply-chain problems and the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the threat of inflation, and it’s easy to see why fears of a downturn have risen swiftly. »

Polls show a majority of Americans see inflation as the top problem facing the country. Consumer sentiment has plunged and US President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have sunk as Republicans criticise him over the issue.

In hearings in Washington this week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said bringing down prices was the « number one priority ».

Over the month, prices gained 1%, driven by rising cost of petrol, which has hit new records in the US, approaching an average of nearly $5 a gallon.

Wages have not kept up with the rising prices. The rising cost of living has especially hit lower income households, for whom basics like food and energy make up large portions of spending.

By Natalie Sherman Business reporter, New York – BBC News

L’article Energy and food drive US inflation to highest for 40 years est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

About 27 million people already suffer hunger, a number that could rise to 23 by June unless urgent action is taken.

About 27 million people in West Africa are suffering from hunger marking the region’s worst food crisis in a decade, international aid groups have said.

In a damning statement published on Tuesday, 11 major international organizations including Oxfam, ALIMA and Save the Children, warned that the figure could even rise to 38 million this June.

Unless urgent action is taken, they said, the increase would mark “a new historic level” and an increase by more than a third during last year.

The alert comes a day before a virtual conference on the food and nutrition crisis in the Sahel and Lake Chad.

Since 2015, the number of people in need of emergency food assistance in the region – which includes Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mali, and Nigeria – has nearly quadrupled, jumping from seven to 27 million.

Assalama Dawalack Sidi, Oxfam’s regional director for West and Central Africa said the situation had been worsened by “drought, floods, conflict, and the economic impacts of COVID-19”, which has displaced millions and is “pushing them to the brink”.

“There is not enough food, let alone food that is nutritious enough for children. We must help them urgently because their health, their future and even their lives are at risk,” stressed Philippe Adapoe, Save the Children’s director for West and Central Africa.

The United Nations has estimated that 6.3 million children aged 6-59 months will be acutely malnourished this year, an increase of almost 30 percent from 2021.

“I had almost no milk left so I gave my baby other food. He often refused to take it and lost weight. In addition, he had diarrhoea, which worsened his condition,” said Safiatou, a mother who had to flee her village because of the violence in Burkina Faso.

With food increasingly scarce, families’ food sources, especially in the central Sahel, and families increasingly being forced to sell their assets, further jeopardising their productive capacity and the future of their children.

As often happens during crisis, girls are dropping out of school or being forced into early marriage.

“The rains were scarce. There is no more food. With the lack of grazing, the sheep are getting thinner and this forces us to sell them at a loss. I used to have 12 sheep, but now I only have one left”, explained Ramata Sanfo, a herder from Burkina Faso. “I would like to have my cattle back so that I have enough money and my children can go back to school.”

To add to the already dire situation, experts have predicted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could push food prices up to 20 percent worldwide – “an unbearable increase for an already fragile population”.

The conflict will likely significantly reduce the availability of wheat in the six West African countries, which import at least a third or even as much as half of their consumption volumes from the conflicting countries.

And while the crisis has shown no sign of abating during the past decade, international donations are drastically reducing. Last year, the humanitarian response plan for West Africa failed to reach half of its scope.

“The Sahel crisis is one of the worst humanitarian crises on a global scale and, at the same time, one of the least funded,” said Mamadou Diop, the regional representative of Action Against Hunger. “We fear that by redirecting humanitarian budgets to the Ukrainian crisis, we risk dangerously aggravating one crisis to respond to another.”

According to the statement, Denmark has announced that it will postpone about half of its entire bilateral development assistance to Burkina Faso and Mali this year, in order to fund the reception of people displaced from Ukraine.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

L’article Oxfam, others: West Africa facing worst food crisis in a decade est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Aid groups are struggling to feed thousands of vulnerable families in Lebanon amid highest food inflation in the world.

For the past decade, Sawa For Development and Aid has been delivering evening iftar meals for about 4,000 families breaking the daily fast during Ramadan in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

But this year the NGO’s busy kitchen has had to work non-stop, cooking for at least 7,000 Syrian refugee and Lebanese families.

“This year is a bit different,” Doha Adi, the NGO’s programmes manager, told Al Jazeera with a sigh.

“We’re providing hot meals for areas far from our kitchen [in the Bekaa Valley], delivering food parcels to homes in Beirut and Tripoli – we never thought we’d ever have to intervene in Beirut,” she said.

But it is not only Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese across the country asking Sawa for Development and Aid for meals this Ramadan.

“We’re being contacted by municipalities in the Bekaa Governorate to support Lebanese households this year,” Adi said.

“They’re sending us lists of vulnerable households, asking if we can support them.”

The Lebanese pound has lost about 90 percent of its value since late 2019 and continues to slump.

Over the past 18 months, more than half of Lebanon’s population has fallen into poverty.

On top of that, food prices have skyrocketed – even for the most modest household staples.

Lebanon imports most of its goods, including food, and food inflation in Lebanon is the highest in the world, according to the United Nations – as food prices have soared above 400 percent.

‘What can you get with that?’

Calculations by Nasser Yassin, professor of policy and planning at the American University of Beirut, have revealed that a common fattoush salad – comprised of basic ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, radish and parsley – is 210 percent more expensive to prepare this year.

Yassin has dismissed tabloid speculation that Lebanon could witness a famine, but is still alarmed by the country’s food security crisis and said Lebanese households are likely to shift to a less nutritious and diverse diet, as many of the country’s 1.5 million Syrian refugees have been forced to do.

“Instead of eating three times [a day], they would eat twice, but mostly they would go for cheaper options, so more carbs, less meat and proteins,” Yassin said.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

L’article ‘No food in the fridge’: A gruelling Ramadan in Lebanon est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Central African Republic is facing serious food shortages as election violence has cut off the country and stranded hundreds of trucks carrying supplies outside its borders.

Food prices have risen steeply since the landlocked country’s main supply route from Cameroon was cut off by armed groups trying to blockade the capital, Bangui, where the government declared a state of emergency on Thursday.

The price of staple foods has risen by more than 50% in rural areas, according to the UN, which said an attack last Monday by rebels on a convoy carrying humanitarian supplies was “totally unacceptable”. Three drivers were injured in the attack.

More than 1,600 trucks have been stuck at the border, a third of them carrying humanitarian aid, including food and medicine.

Under the new umbrella Coalition des Patriotes pour le Changement (CPC), armed groups launched an assault on Bangui ahead of the 27 December election, protesting against the exclusion of former president François Bozizé.

The CPC has seized towns around the country, but has been repelled from Bangui in clashes with government armed forces and the UN peacekeeping mission Minusca.

Hans De Marie Heungoup, senior central Africa analyst for Crisis Group, said the blockade of Bangui was “a deliberate tactic to strangle the capital economically, to force the government to the negotiating table”.

He said Bozizé had met with rebel leaders after his candidacy for the presidential election was thrown out by the constitutional court, his aim to prevent the elections taking place and to march on the capital.

Both the rebels and the traditional opposition groups have rejected the election results, which confirmed the return of incumbent Faustin-Archange Touadéra.Advertisement

“Many trucks of the UN come through Cameroon. Some come by air but most pass on land, through Cameroon,” said De Marie Heungoup.

“It’s not just the usual business activity that has stopped. With the fighting ongoing in several provinces, people are not receiving the assistance they usually do and this is a challenge,” he said, adding that some humanitarian groups had also been looted.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced since violence began last month, including 84,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UN. About 10,000 refugees arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 13 January alone.

World Opinions News – agencies

L’article Central African Republic suffers food shortages as rebels cut off capital est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.