The UN's World Food Programme says it is ready to deliver critical aid to more of the millions of civilians trapped by the wars in Sudan and Gaza, if access restrictions in those places are lifted.
In Sudan, where the UN estimates 30 million people – two thirds of the population − will need assistance this year, the WFP and other aid groups face challenges from intense fighting, threats to their workers and bureaucratic obstacles.
Despite this, WFP now manages reach more than five million people monthly in Sudan, nearly four times more than at the beginning of 2024. “That's compared to around one to two million only six months ago, and partly that is, of course, the changes in dynamics on the ground,” WFP deputy executive director Carl Skau told The National.
The war in Sudan has created the world's biggest humanitarian crisis, the UN has said. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than 12 million people forced to flee their homes, including about four million to neighbouring countries, since fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023.
On Thursday the deputy prosecutor for the International Criminal Court said investigations found evidence war crimes and crimes against humanity were continuing to take place in Sudan’s vast western Darfur region.
Nazhat Shameem Khan told the UN Security Council that the humanitarian crisis “has reached an intolerable state”, with famine escalating and hospitals, humanitarian convoys and other civilian infrastructure being attacked.
Although attempts to broker a ceasefire or humanitarian pauses have so far failed, Mr Skau said the WFP had been asked “to be ready with the commodities and with the trucks and the logistics, should there be agreement”, amid talks between the warring sides and the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The UN agency has seen “progress in terms of more access” during the past few months, but the needs remain very high and access to conflict-impacted areas is still restricted, he said.
The WFP and other humanitarian agencies are also awaiting a positive outcome from ongoing negotiations on Gaza, where the 2.3 million population faces severe hunger and lack of basic necessities following widespread displacement and Israel's strict controls on the entry and movement of aid during more than 21 months of its war with Hamas.
People in Gaza “have never been more desperate, certainly on the food-security front” but the WFP is unable to distribute a “variety of commodities that are required to where they are needed, including in the north", said Mr Skau, who visited the Palestinian enclave this week.
“We had serious challenges including in the north, where there were reports of interference, so we have kind of since then been off and on, depending on where we feel we can make a difference,” Mr Skau said. “I don't want by any means to pretend that that this is enough or that it's done in the way that we always do, because it's just not enough.”
He said the WFP has sufficient aid waiting at delivery points outside Gaza to feed its population for two months, but needed to be given “full access” to the enclave.
“We need those routes. We need those entry points, but whether that will happen or not, that I can't say because I'm not privy to these negotiations,” he said, referring to ceasefire talks taking place in Qatar.
More financial support needed
The ability to deliver more aid brings with it the need to ensure sufficient funding, which is a challenge the WFP is facing in Sudan, Mr Skau said.
The UN agency said it has a shortfall in funding of $698 million out of the nearly $800 million it asked for from donors to help seven million people from May through to September of this year.
“There is one thing to run an operation serving one to two million people. It's completely different to do it for five million, and we would be ready and want to aim for even more,” he said.
The agency has had some “progress in terms of more access” during the past few months. However, the needs still remain very high and access to conflict-impacted areas is still restricted.
“More money is needed and focus needs to be on trying to address some of these pockets where there has not been access for quite some time and where we need a political agreement also to be able to cross the [combat] lines,” Mr Skau said.
In Gaza, the WFP is looking to shore up funding through private donors, he said. “We are now running into an issue of funding, no doubt, and we look to a broad set of donors to step forward to try to help alleviate what is just a terrible humanitarian situation.”
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 2
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The National in Davos
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When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
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Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
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The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
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