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Yemen’s Escalating Hunger Crisis: Nearly Half the Population Struggles to Find Enough Food

Recent data reveals that Yemen is now the world’s third biggest food crisis,[1] with half of its population facing hunger, and nearly half of all children under five suffering from chronic malnutrition.[2] On World Food Day, international and national organizations in Yemen are calling for urgent action to address the escalating hunger crisis in the country.

Yemen is facing an alarming humanitarian emergency, with an increasing number of people deprived of food and one in three families facing moderate to severe hunger. Over 100 districts now face a critical nutrition emergency, an unprecedented increase in malnutrition levels across the country.[3] In Abs District, Hajjah, children have died of starvation as malnutrition rates soared, while in Al Hodeida and Taiz, a projected 15 – 30 percent rise in acute malnutrition is expected by the end of the year.[4]

The situation is rapidly deteriorating. By early 2026, over 18 million people across Yemen are expected to face crisis levels of hunger, including approximately 41,000 at risk of famine.[5]

Across the country, families are now being driven into impossible choices — parents are skipping meals so their children can eat, selling off land, livestock, or their few belongings just to survive. As a mother from Al Dhale’ shared: “There are days when I send my daughter to her grandfather’s house just so she can eat, while I go without. On other days, we eat just bread and drink tea. As a mother, it breaks me.”

The impacts of the current crisis are intergenerational. Children are among the hardest hit — losing not only their health, as hunger robs them of their physical and cognitive development, increasing lifelong health risks, but also their hopes for the future. As families struggle to survive, many have been forced to take their children out of school, send them to work, or marry them off early, exposing them to further risks.

DRIVING FACTORS

Conflict, economic collapse, climate shocks and water scarcity are pushing Yemen towards famine. Years of war and displacement have eroded livelihoods, limiting access to basic health and nutrition services. As is more often the case, women and girls have been disproportionately affected. Now recovery efforts are stalling with rising food prices, currency devaluation and economic fragmentation pushing millions deeper into crisis. The latest floods this August are a stark example of how climate change is limiting the availability of food, destroying farmland, livestock, and other essential sources of sustenance.

While conditions are challenging across Yemen, in northern governorates, the ongoing detention of humanitarian staff has further obstructed lifesaving aid operations. The restriction of movement imposed on female Yemeni aid workers, which prevents them from travelling without male guardians, also continues to impede humanitarian delivery and limits the ability of vulnerable women and girls to access humanitarian services.

Unprecedented global aid cuts in 2025 have further driven hunger and child malnutrition to deadly levels.[6] Funding cuts have forced the shutdown of over 2,800 lifesaving treatment services, representing nearly half of all lifesaving nutrition programming.[7] Nearly all supply pipelines, which serve millions of malnourished children, as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women, are under severe strain. Despite rising needs, Yemen’s food security and nutrition responses are at its lowest in a decade, with barely 10 percent of funding needs met.[8]

Taking Effective Solutions Further

Over the past decade, international and local organizations in Yemen have helped prevent famine from taking hold and saved countless lives. With the support of donors we have restored irrigation systems, provided cash assistance and vocational training to help families rebuild their livelihoods. These efforts have kept children nourished, supported parents to earn an income, and revived small-scale farming. However, without sustained, long-term investment, the tide will turn. More districts are at imminent risk of sliding into catastrophic levels of malnutrition [9] without urgent funding and supplies.

Donors Must Step Up

As the world marks World Food Day, the international community must scale up support for proven solutions to allow humanitarian actors to tackle Yemen’s worsening hunger crisis, protect children and families and prevent increased suffering. Equally important is addressing the root causes of Yemen’s food insecurity: an end to the conflict which requires meaningful progress in the peace process and robust recovery efforts, including stabilization of the economy and investments in climate resilient agriculture and livelihoods. Only through a combined effort — linking immediate life-saving support with long-term political and economic solutions — can Yemenis rebuild their lives.

We call on:

  • Donors and international partners to fund immediate food security and livelihood needs identified in the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster hyper-prioritized plan,[10] with a focus on hotspot districts and the restoration of critical supply pipelines. Support will enable lifesaving nutrition services, including the continued operation of therapeutic feeding centers and access to essential treatment supplies.

  • Donors and international partners to increase investment in national organizations as a critical effort towards advancing the localization agenda, while ensuring communities are supported faster and more effectively.

  • Donors and international partners to jointly advocate for principled humanitarian access across Yemen, facilitating the timely delivery of targeted and complementary food, nutrition and cash assistance.

  • Donors and international partners to urgently ensure that humanitarian programs across Yemen integrate measures to safeguard vulnerable communities, particularly women and children, addressing the rising risks they face due to the escalating hunger crisis, including forced child labor, early marriage, and school dropout

  • Development donors to invest in robust disaster risk management strategies. Resilient infrastructure and community preparedness initiatives, including social transfers, are critical to minimize risks of climate change and protect the most vulnerable populations.

  • Parties to the conflict must facilitate principled and unhindered humanitarian access to ensure the timely delivery of lifesaving assistance, and the recovery of their communities from severe hunger and malnutrition. All arbitrarily detained humanitarian workers should be released, and the safety and continuity of humanitarian operations should be ensured.

  • Parties to the conflict, with the support of the international community, to take steps towards peace efforts including economic relief measures – such as resuming public sector salary payments, restoring banking operations, and curbing currency depreciation – to reduce the drivers of hunger and enable families to afford food and basic needs.

Signed by:

Action Contre la Faim (ACF) Action for Humanity
Aden Foundation for Arts and Sciences (ADEN-FAS) Al-Ahlam Foundation for Developmental Medicine
All Girls Foundation For Development (AGF)
Al-Nabras Foundation for Human Development Altwasul for Human Development
CARE
Child and Youth Protection Foundation (CYPF) Center For Civilians In Conflict (CIVIC)
Danish Refugee Council (DRC) Deem for Development Organization Direct Aid (DA)
Dorcas
FARHM Network for Peace and Development (network of 10 Yemeni organizations) Field Medical
Foundation (FMF)
For Human Development Foundation (FHD) Generations Without Qat (GWQ)
Geneva Call
Human Access for Partnership and Development International Medical Corps
International Rescue Committee (IRC) INTERSOS
Joud Al Ata a Foundation Humanity Development (JAFHD) Médecins du Monde (MdM)
Medglobal
Mona Relief and Development Organization (Mona Relief)
Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)
OXFAM
Relief & Development Peer Foundation (RDP) Relief International (RI)
Save the Children
Secours Islamique France (SIF)
Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS) Solidarités International (SI)
SOUL for Development (SOUL)
War Child Alliance

—

*[1]. Mr. Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator – Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen, 15 September 2025 | OCHA
[2] Approximately 18.1 million people are facing hunger and 49% of children under 5 are facing chronic malnutrition, Nutrition Cluster, Oct 2025.
[3] Nutrition Cluster, Oct 2025.
[4] Nutrition Cluster, Oct 2025.
[5] Food insecurity levels are based on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), where Phase 3 indicates crisis levels of food insecurity and Phase 5 indicates catastrophic or famine conditions. IPC projects Phase [5] (Catastrophic) conditions in four districts within Amran, Al Hodeidah and Hajjah governorates.
[6] IPC projections from Sept 2025 – Feb 2026 mark a record-high number of areas classified in Phase 4 (Emergency).
[7] 377 Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP) sites, 2,376 Targeted Supplementary Feeding Program (TSFP) sites, 77 mobile teams, and 21 Therapeutic Feeding Centers (TFCs) have closed due to a shortfall in funds (Nutrition Cluster, Oct 2025).
[8] Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025. https://fts.unocha.org/plans/1262/global-clusters.
[9] IPC Acute Malnutrition (AMN) Phase 5.
[10] Yemen Food Security and Agriculture hyper-prioritized response plan, July- Dec 2025. https://fscluster.org/yemen/document/yemen-fsac-hyper-prioritized-response.

Notes to Editors

  • Data from assessments conducted in Taiz, Al Dhae’e, Abyan and Al Hodiedah in August 2025, reveal that half of all households with children under five had at least one malnourished child during the last three months, while 1 in 4 households had at least one malnourished pregnant or lactating woman (PLW) during the same period.

  • Malnourished children are about ten times more likely to die from common illnesses than well-nourished children, leaving them at risk of stunting—a form of chronic malnutrition that impairs normal physical and cognitive development—along with irreversible developmental delays, lifelong health struggles, and diminished prospects for the future. Without treatment, their bodies enter full starvation, breaking down protein—the essential tissue needed for survival—until they slowly and painfully die. Yemen’s future generation is at risk, and assistance must reach them as soon as possible. 

Contact information

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Oxfam Reaction to IPC findings

Reacting to the Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) report published today confirming a famine in Gaza Governorate which is predicted to expand to Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis by the end of September, Oxfam’s Food Security and Livelihoods Coordinator, Mahmoud Alsaqqa said:

“The famine in Gaza is entirely driven by Israel’s near-total blockade on food and vital aid, the horrifying consequence of Israel’s violence, and its use of starvation as a weapon of war. This is what our staff and partners have been witnessing for months – people in the Gaza Strip being deliberately starved, relentlessly bombarded and forcefully displaced. All part of Israel’s genocide. 

“Mothers are now too malnourished to nurse their starving babies. People are being forced to walk miles across treacherous terrain to find food, only to be shot, at militarized distribution centres. Elderly under fire are too weak to flee, illustrating an enforced humanitarian-system collapse and repeated crimes against humanity.

“Despite warnings in July that famine was imminent, Israel has continued to deprive Palestinians of food, denying almost every request from even long-established humanitarian agencies operating in Gaza, preventing them from delivering vital food and aid that could have stemmed hunger, malnutrition and disease.

“Oxfam alone has more than $2.5m worth of life-saving aid, including high-calorie food packages – now sitting in warehouses outside Gaza. Israeli authorities have rejected all at a time when it is needed more than ever.

“The Government of Israel is continuing its campaign of relentless bombing and implementing a policy choice of starving out people in areas where famine is now classified, while persisting with plans to forcibly displace the starving population of Gaza City.

“Other governments that could have done more to stop Israel, are complicit in enabling genocide and war crimes by their silence, inaction and the continuation of many to supply Israel with arms.

“This famine is entirely man-made, and it can be halted. Oxfam calls for an immediate ceasefire, the full lifting of the blockade, and urgent humanitarian aid at scale through all crossings, including those to the north.”

Note to Editors:

  • Read the IPC’s Special Snapshot on Gaza published today.
  • The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is an innovative multi-partner initiative of 19 organisations, including Oxfam, and intergovernmental institutions. The IPC initiative provides food security and nutrition analysis to inform decision-making.
  • Read how famine is measured.
  • This IPC assessment was done between 1 and 30 July. The figures are likely an underestimate of the situation now.
  • According to the UN (20 Aug), malnutrition has tripled across the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire collapsed. And in Gaza City, acute malnutrition has now reached 28.5 per cent, meaning more than one in four children in Gaza City is now considered malnourished. 
  • Starvation as a weapon of war being used against Gaza civilians, Oxfam press release, 25 October 2023.

Contact information:

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected]

Israel threatens to ban major aid organisations as starvation deepens

JOINT STATEMENT:

Over 100 organisations call for an end to Israel’s weaponisation of aid

Despite claims by Israeli authorities that there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international NGOs have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since 2 March. Instead of clearing the growing backlog of goods, Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organizations are “not authorized to deliver aid.” In July alone, over 60 requests were denied under this justification.

This obstruction has left millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved.

“Anera has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza – including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometers away,” said Sean Carroll, President and CEO of Anera.

Many of the NGOs now told they are not “authorized” to deliver aid have worked in Gaza for decades, are trusted by communities and experienced in delivering aid safely. Their exclusion has left hospitals without basic supplies, children, people with disabilities, and older people dying from hunger and preventable illnesses, and aid workers themselves going to work hungry. The obstruction is tied to new INGO registration rules introduced in March. Under these new
rules, registration can be denied on the basis of vague and politicized criteria, such as alleged “delegitimization” of the state of Israel. INGOs warned the process was designed to control independent organizations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting. This new bureaucratic obstruction is inconsistent with established international law as it entrenches Israel’s control and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Unless INGOs submit to the full registration requirements, including the mandatory submission of details of private donors, complete Palestinian staff lists and other sensitive information about personnel for so-called “security” vetting to Israeli authorities, many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days. Some organizations have even been issued a seven-day ultimatum to provide Palestinian staff lists.NGOs have made clear that sharing such data is unlawful (including under relevant data protection laws), unsafe, and incompatible with humanitarian principles. In the deadliest context for aid workers worldwide, where 98 percent of those humanitarians killed were
Palestinian, NGOs have no guarantees that handing over such information would not put staff at further risk, or be used to advance the government of Israel’s stated military and political aims.

Today, INGOs’ fears have proven true: the registration system is now being used to further block aid and deny food and medicine in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine.

“Since the full siege was imposed on 2 March, CARE has not been able to deliver any of our $1.5 million worth of pre-positioned supplies into Gaza,” said Jolien Veldwijk, Country Director of CARE. “This includes critical shipments of food parcels, medical supplies, hygiene kits, dignity kits, and maternal and infant care items. Our mandate is to save lives, but due to the registration restrictions civilians are being left without the food, medicine, and protection they urgently need.”

“Oxfam has over $2.5 million worth of goods that have been rejected from entering Gaza by Israel, especially WASH and hygiene items as well as food,” said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam Policy Lead. “This registration process signals to INGOs that their ability to operate may come at the cost of their independence and ability to speak out.”

These restrictions are part of a broader strategy that includes the so-called “GHF” scheme – a militarised distribution mechanism promoted as a humanitarian solution. In reality, it is a deadly tool of control, with at least 859 Palestinians killed around “GHF” sites since it began operating.

“The militarized food distribution scheme has weaponized starvation and curated suffering. Distributions at GHF sites have resulted in extreme levels of violence and killings, primarily of young Palestinian men, but also of women and children, who have gone to the sites in the hope of receiving food,” according to Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.

Both the “GHF” scheme and the INGO registration process aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organisations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives. They come as the government of Israel to escalate its military offensive and deepen its occupation in Gaza, making clear these measures are part of a broader strategy to entrench control and erase Palestinian presence.

“At this point, everyone knows what the correct, humane answer is, and it’s not a floating pier, airdrops or the “GHF.” The answer, to save lives, save humanity and save yourselves from complicity in engineered mass starvation, is to open all the borders, at all hours, to the thousands of trucks, millions of meals and medical supplies, ready and waiting nearby,” said Sean Carroll of Anera.

We call on all states and donors to:

  • Press Israel to end the weaponization of aid, including through bureaucratic obstruction, such as the INGO registration procedures.
  • Insist that INGOs are not forced to share sensitive personal information, in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or compromise staff safety or independence as a condition for delivering aid.
  • Demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid.

Editor’s Notes:

  • The occupied Palestinian territory is the deadliest setting for aid workers worldwide, with Palestinian staff accounting for 98% of aid worker fatalities: 509 out of 517 killings that took place between 2023-2025, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
  • On 6 May, 55 organizations warned that Israel’s new INGO registration measures are a grave threat to humanitarian operations and international law.
  • On 1 July, 200+ organisations called for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme, including the so-called “GHF” in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.
  • On 23 July, 100+ organisations warned that, as mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.
  •  On 29 July, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) wrote that the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.
  • Israel has consistently denied restricting the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, including throughout the period of July 2025, when most of the denials discussed in this statement were issued.
  • On 31 July, OHCHR wrote that since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the “GHF” sites and 514 along the droutes of food convoys. Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli forces.
  • On 4 August, a Palestinian nurse in Gaza was killed when an airdrop struck him.
  • On 5 August, it was reported that Israeli authorities are planning for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip.
  • On 6 August, UN agencies and NGOs warned that without immediate action most international NGO partners could be de-registered by Israel in coming weeks.
  • On 6 August, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that Israel’s information requests under the INGO registration process risk violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPA advised that INGOs should not comply with these requests, and that the only solution is for Israel to amend its requirements and for the relevant ministries to issue a formal protest.
  • On 7 August, MSF released a report stating food distributions in Gaza run by the so-called “GHF” are sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanization” that must be shut down.”
  • On 10 August, Save the Children reported the deaths of 100 children due to starvation in Gaza since October 2023.
  • On 12 August, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights published a letter to the Israeli government, stating deep concern that the INGO registration measures “weaken the ability of INGOs to operate independently and impartially and to carry out their humanitarian and human rights work without interference or fear of reprisal” and that “that the obligation to report on INGO personnel, in the context of occupation, armed conflict and serious violations of international law, could raise serious protection and reprisal concerns.”

Signatories:  

1. Action Against Hunger (ACF)
2. A New Policy
3. ACT Alliance
4. Action For Humanity
5. ActionAid Denmark
6. ActionAid International
7. All We Can
8. Alliance Sud
9. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
10. Americares
11. Anera
12. Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz
13. Bystanders No More
14. Campaign Against Arms Trade
15. Canadian Foodgrains Bank
16. CARE
17. Caritas Internationalis
18. Caritas Jerusalem
19. Caritas Middle East and North Africa
20. Caritas Switzerland
21. Center for Jewish Nonviolence
22. Charity & Security Network
23. Children Not Numbers
24. Christian Aid
25. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
26. CISS – Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud
27. Committee to Protect Journalists
28. Cooperation Canada
29. COORDINADORA VALENCIANA ONGD
30. DanChurchAid
31. Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
32. Department of Service to the Palestinian Refugees
33. Diakonia
34. Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe
35. EDUCO
36. Embrace the Middle East37. Emergency – Life Support for Civilian War Victims Ong Ets
38. Entreculturas
39. Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V. (Pro Peace)
40. Frieda – the Feminist Peace Organization
41. Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
42. Fund for Global Human Rights
43. Glia
44. HEKS/EPER (Swiss Church Aid)
45. HelpAge International
46. Humanitarian Coalition
47. Humanity Auxilium
48. Humanity & Inclusion – Handicap International
49. Humanity First UK
50. INARA
51. Insecurity Insight
52. International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF)
53. INTERSOS
54. Islamic Relief
55. Jahalin Solidarity
56. Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
57. Jüdische Stimme für Demokratie und Gerechtigkeit in Israel/Palästina JVJP Switzerland
58. KinderUSA
59. Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
60. La Coordinadora de Organizaciones para el Desarrollo (The Spanish Development NGO Platform)
61. Médecins du Monde International Network
62. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
63. MedGlobal
64. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
65. medico international
66. medico international schweiz
67. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
68. Middle East Children’s Alliance
69. MPower Change Action Fund
70. Muslim Aid
71. NORWAC – Norwegian Aid Committee
72. Norwegian Church Aid
73. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)
74. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
75. Oxfam
76. Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)
77. PANZMA – Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association
78. PARCIC
79. Pax Christi International
80. PAX for Peace81. Peace Watch Switzerland
82. People in Need (PIN)
83. Plan International
84. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH)
85. Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs
86. Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI)
87. Project HOPE
88. Relief International
89. Right to Play
90. Sabeel-Kairos UK
91. Saferworld
92. Save the Children International
93. Secours Islamique France (SIF)
94. Solidar Suisse
95. Solidarités International
96. SWISSAID
97. Terre des Hommes Italy
98. Terre des Hommes Lausanne
99. The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET)
100. The United Church of Canada
101. United Against Inhumanity (UAI)
102. Vento di Terra
103. War Child Alliance
104. Weltfriedensdienst e.V.

Contact information:

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected]

Oxfam reaction to SOFI 2025 report

In reaction to the United Nations’ 2025 edition of “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” (SOFI) report launched today, showing only a slight progress in reducing hunger and warning that over half a billion people could be chronically hungry by 2030—nearly 60% of them in Africa — Emily Farr, Oxfam’s Food and Economic Security Lead, said:  

“We are witnessing the collapse of a moral contract. While some regions have seen some modest gains, the world is veering dangerously off track, leaving the poorest and more vulnerable behind.  As top donors, including the G7, push through a historic 28% cut to aid by 2026, 2.6 billion people —over a third of humanity —still cannot afford a healthy diet. These are not just statistics. These are lives unravelling and futures stolen. 

“This is not a crisis of scarcity — it is a crisis of inequality.  Climate chaos, conflict unchecked, and broken policies—driven by greed and impunity—are tearing apart global food systems and entrenching inequality. In 2024 alone, billionaires’ wealth soared by $2 trillion while poverty barely budged.  Since 2015, the world’s richest 1% have amassed $33.9 trillion — enough to end global poverty 22 times over. Yet hunger persists, not by accident, but by design. As fields flood and crops wither, aid is slashed, and a few corporate giants profit from the wreckage.  

Low-income countries are paying the highest price for a crisis they did not create. While global food price inflation peaked at 13.6 percent, it soared to 30 percent in the poorest economies— wiping out household budgets and access to food. In Africa, 1 in 5 people remain chronically hungry, with women and children hit hardest by deep cuts in nutrition programs. 

“We cannot afford a global food system built on injustice and indifference. Despite a modest improvement, we are nowhere the pace needed to meet global goals. The tide can still be turned, but only if governments act with urgency and unity: restore gutted aid, crack down on food profiteers, and invest in local farmers and local food systems that feed people, not profit margins.” 

Notes to editors

Contact information

Spokespeople available. For more details, please contact:  [email protected]

Six Months into Congo’s War, Cholera Is Killing More Than Four People Every Day

  • Aid cuts and humanitarian deadlock are fuelling a full-blown public health disaster.
  • In Sake and Minova, 500 people are sharing a single water tap.

Six months since the renewed war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a full-blown public health emergency is accelerating, Oxfam warned today.

Since January, more than 35,000 suspected cholera cases and at least 852 related deaths have been reported – an average of more than four deaths every day and a 62 percent increase compared to 2024.

After M23 fighters seized Goma in January civilians were ordered to return to their villages within 72 hours. More than 3.16 million people have since returned back only to find their homes reduced to rubble, and aid system on the verge of collapse.

Water networks, including storage facilities have been obliterated, leaving families to drink from contaminated streams and stagnant lakes. Basic health services have crumbled, with hospitals out of medicine and sanitation systems in ruins. In some of the hardest-hit areas, like Sake and Minova, 500 people are now sharing a single water tap.

Dr. Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam’s Director in DRC said:

“This is a full-blown public health emergency. Families are returning to ruins—no shelters, no toilets, no clean water. In many areas, latrines have been flooded or stripped for firewood, forcing people to defecate in the open and contaminate the only water available. The air reeks of sewage. Hospitals are out of medicine, and we can’t reach cut-off communities with even the most basic aid.”

In South Kivu’s Uvira region, cholera is surging with 100 new cases being reported each day. Floodwaters from Lake Tanganyika routinely inundate homes and latrines overflow into the lake, even as families are forced to drink lake water.

The forced closure and destruction of more than 20 displacement sites in Goma alone has left 700,000 people without safe shelter, clean water or basic sanitation In Rusayo, Lushagal, and Bhimba —where Oxfam had been supporting over 100,000 people—entire sites have been razed or abandoned, including more than $700,000 worth of water and sanitation infrastructure, such as pipelines, latrines, and tanks.

Despite a US-brokered ceasefire, insecurity, roadblocks, and ongoing clashes have severed vital supply routes, cutting off communities from lifesaving food, clean water, and medicine. Aid agencies like Oxfam are now being forced to detour through Rwanda, severely hampering relief efforts. Cross-border access through Burundi has been entirely blocked, while illegal taxes and bureaucratic obstruction are further choking humanitarian deliveries.

Deep aid cuts since the start of 2025 have pushed the humanitarian response to the brink of failure. Only a fraction of the $2.54 billion needed this year as humanitarian aid in DRC has been received to date—forcing agencies like Oxfam to scale back or suspend life-saving operations. Even a UN investigation into possible war crimes has been frozen for lack of funding.

“People are suffering because we cannot reach them,” said Balume Loutre, Oxfam’s Public Health Engineering Team Leader in Eastern DRC. “They’re drinking from contaminated water sources, and we lack the resources to deliver even basic aid. In some villages, 15,000 families need help, but we can only support 500. We’re forced to make impossible choices, leaving thousands behind.”

The situation is particularly alarming for women and girls. Since the cuts to USAID funding, more than 8,200 people living with HIV have lost access to antiretroviral treatment. Emergency post-rape care kits are vanishing, even as a child is reported raped every half an hour in eastern DRC, according to UNICEF.

Despite the collapse of the aid system, Oxfam and its partners continue to deliver lifesaving assistance – constructing water systems, building latrines and distributing soap and hygiene kits, food and seed. But urgent funding is needed to reach 400,000 people in high-risk cholera zones.

“We need an immediate injection of funds, and all warring parties to commit to a permanent ceasefire and allow aid to flow freely. After six months of chaos, people need dignity and respite from relentless violence. The world cannot look away,” said Mangundu.

Notes to editors

  • M23 fighters seized Goma in January, civilians were ordered to return to their villages in 72 hours, leaving at least 700,000 people hosted in 20 camps in Goma without shelter, food and water, according to the
  • 26 weeks into 2025, the DRC’s Ministry of Public Health and Hygiene and Social Welfare had registered 33,864 cases of cholera 757 deaths, to which 2,085 cases and 95 deaths were added in week 27.
  • The national death rate linked to cholera was 36% in 2024 while it was at 2.2%in early July 2025, a 62% increase.
  • According to OCHA, the humanitarian response needs for the year 2025 in DRC is $2.5 billion, but only $320 million has been received.
  • Info on UN investigation stalled due to funding based on Reuters.
  • According to OCHA-DRC’s there are 2.09 million returnees in North Kivu, 657.11k in South Kivu and 413.3k in Ituri.
  • UNICEF reported that children could account for 35% to 45% of nearly 10,000 cases of rape and sexual violence in January and February 2025 alone, which amounts to child raped every half an hour. The UN registered 67,000 incidences of rape in the last 5 months, approximately 450 cases/day, equivalent to a rape every half an hour.
  • Oxfam is currently providing water, food and protection having reached around 100,000 people in the most hit areas and aims to reach 400,000 people.

Contact information

Spokespeople available. For more details, please contact:  [email protected]

More than 100 organisations are sounding the alarm to allow lifesaving aid into Gaza

JOINT STATEMENT

“As mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.” 

As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes. 

Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, Oxfam and more than 100 organisations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now. 

“Each morning, the same question echoes across Gaza: will I eat today?” said one agency representative. 

Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily. As of July 13, the UN confirmed 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points. Thousands more have been injured. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted Palestinians with the most recent mass displacement order issued on July 20, confining Palestinians to less than 12 per cent of Gaza. WFP warns that current conditions make operations untenable. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime. 

Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them. The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death.

An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.” 

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people. Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration. Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance. 

The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning. 

Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale. But, with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams. On July 10, the EU and Israel announced steps to scale up aid. But these promises of ‘progress’ ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive. 

Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access. 

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work. It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition. 

Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save. 

Signatories:  

  1. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
  2. A.M. Qattan Foundation
  3. A New Policy
  4. ACT Alliance
  5. Action Against Hunger (ACF)
  6. Action for Humanity
  7. ActionAid International
  8. American Baptist Churches Palestine Justice Network
  9. Amnesty International
  10. Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz
  11. Associazione Cooperazione e Solidarietà (ACS)
  12. Bystanders No More
  13. Campain
  14. CARE
  15. Caritas Germany
  16. Caritas Internationalis
  17. Caritas Jerusalem
  18. Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)
  19. Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)
  20. CESVI Fondazione
  21. Children Not Numbers
  22. Christian Aid
  23. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
  24. CIDSE- International Family of Catholic Social Justice Organisations
  25. Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud (CISS)
  26. Council for Arab‑British Understanding (CAABU)
  27. DanChurchAid (DCA)
  28. Danish Refugee Council (DRC)
  29. Doctors against Genocide
  30. Episcopal Peace Fellowship
  31. EuroMed Rights
  32. Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
  33. Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V.
  34. Gender Action for Peace and Security
  35. Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)
  36. Global Witness
  37. Health Workers 4 Palestine
  38. HelpAge International
  39. Humanity & Inclusion (HI)
  40. Humanity First UK
  41. Indiana Center for Middle East Peace
  42. Insecurity Insight
  43. International Media Support
  44. International NGO Safety Organisation
  45. Islamic Relief
  46. Jahalin Solidarity
  47. Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)
  48. Kenya Association of Muslim Medical Professionals (KAMMP)
  49. Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation
  50. MedGlobal
  51. Medico International
  52. Medico International Switzerland (medico international schweiz)
  53. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
  54. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)
  55. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
  56. Médecins du Monde France
  57. Médecins du Monde Spain
  58. Médecins du Monde Switzerland
  59. Mercy Corps
  60. Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)
  61. Movement for Peace (MPDL)
  62. Muslim Aid
  63. National Justice and Peace Network in England and Wales
  64. Nonviolence International
  65. Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC)
  66. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)
  67. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)
  68. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
  69. Oxfam International
  70. Pax Christi England and Wales
  71. Pax Christi International
  72. Pax Christi Merseyside
  73. Pax Christi USA
  74. Pal Law Commission
  75. Palestinian American Medical Association
  76. Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)
  77. Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)
  78. Peace Direct
  79. Peace Winds
  80. Pediatricians for Palestine
  81. People in Need
  82. Plan International
  83. Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)
  84. Progettomondo
  85. Project HOPE
  86. Quaker Palestine Israel Network
  87. Rebuilding Alliance
  88. Refugees International
  89. Saferworld
  90. Sabeel‑Kairos UK
  91. Save the Children (SCI)
  92. Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund
  93. Solidarités International
  94. Støtteforeningen Det Danske Hus i Palæstina
  95. Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER)
  96. Terre des Hommes Italia
  97. Terre des Hommes Lausanne
  98. Terre des Hommes Nederland
  99. The Borgen Project
  100. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)
  101. The Glia Project
  102. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)
  103. The International Development and Relief Foundation
  104. The Institute for the Understanding of Anti‑Palestinian Racism
  105. Un Ponte Per (UPP)
  106. United Against Inhumanity (UAI)
  107. War Child Alliance
  108. War Child UK
  109. War on Want
  110. Weltfriedensdienst e.V.
  111. Welthungerhilfe (WHH)

Contact information:

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact [email protected]