Aid Organisations Raise Global Conflict Concerns

Leading aid organisations have urged world leaders to urgently renew their call for a global ceasefire and to accelerate Covid-19 response capacity.

Save the Children, International Rescue Committee, World Vision International, Oxfam America, CARE International, Action Against Hunger, Humanity and Inclusion, Hope Restoration South Sudan, Mwatana Organisation for Human Rights, and Progressive Voice urged world leaders to also ensure easy access to areas affected by conflict.

Development Diaries understands that despite the adoption of UN Security Council resolution calling for a global cessation of hostilities, at least 21,347 people have been killed in conflict, including over 5,800 civilian adults and children who were directly targeted.

The aid organisations, in a statement, said that ongoing violence was pushing millions of people to the brink of conflict-induced famine and hindering the battle against the outbreak.

The UN had issued a warning on the risk of conflict-induced famine in South Sudan, Yemen, DRC and northeast Nigeria.

The economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have only worsened food insecurity, with an estimated additional 110 million children going hungry globally as a result of the pandemic.

‘The truth is we are dangerously running out of time. Already warnings are ringing out of the potential for widespread famines in at least four countries as result of the [Covid-19] pandemic’, CEO of Save the Children, Inger Ashing, said.

In South Sudan, according to the organisations, increased inter-communal violence has contributed to nearly 6.5m people, or over half of the country’s population, facing dire levels of food insecurity.

It was also learnt that aid workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have come under attack recently, and hunger levels are spiking in the Ituri district as a consequence of ongoing conflict.

‘Serious diplomatic muscle must be put behind a global ceasefire. No effort to beat Covid-19 can be successful while fighting continues to threaten civilians and hospitals’, Chief Executive Officer of International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, said.

‘More, not less, of the global cooperation the UN represents, is needed to fight this virus’.

Source: Oxfam

Photo source: Ryan

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