ISLAMABAD/KABUL: Pakistan’s tribesmen, who have been protesting since Feb. 1 to seek justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud, have formally announced they will call off their sit-in after the government assured them in writing it will fulfil their demands within a month.
Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has accepted two out of five demands put forth by the tribesmen including the arrest and bringing the accused Rao Anwar to justice as soon as possible, and clearance of land mines from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
The PM has, however, apparently not acknowledged three demands that included an end of what they have described as extrajudicial killings of tribal people in Karachi and other parts of the country; recovery of all missing tribal people and presenting them in court; and ending curfews in tribal areas after any untoward incident.
“Genuine grievances raised by jirga members from different quarters would also be addressed as soon as possible,” the prime minister assured the tribesmen in the written promise.
Rao Anwar, who is accused in the killing of 27-year-old aspiring model Mehsud in a staged encounter in Karachi last month, is still at large despite a suo moto notice by the Supreme Court.
“We are ending our sit-in, but we have given a one-month deadline to the authorities and if, during this period our demands are not met, we will come again,” protest organizer Noor Rehman told Arab News.
Addressing protesters outside the National Press Club this evening, the prime minister’s adviser on political affairs, Amir Muqam, said that India and other countries have been propagandizing against Pakistan due to the sit-in; therefore, it immediately should be called off.
The chief spokesman of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday said that he hopes the protest by group of tribesmen in Islamabad will turn into a “civil move” against extremism which has become an obstacle against development because the region has fallen victim to terrorism.
“The world, media, and civil society need to back this historical move,” Shah Hussein Murtazawi told Arab News.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday voiced his support in favor of the protest in Pakistan by ethnic Pashtuns.
A social media savvy group of young Pashtuns organized a sit-in in Islamabad, creating the hashtag #PashtunLongMarch.
“I fully support the historical #PashtunLongMarch in Pakistan. The main purpose of which is to mobilize citizens against fundamentalism and terrorism in the region,” Ghani said in a tweet.
“I hope #PashtunLongMarch will also succeed in uprooting and eradicating terrorism from their region. The historical importance of this march traces back to the great proponent of non-violence, Bacha Khan, whose philosophy was based on a non-violent ideology,” he added.
Khan was a national hero of the Pashtuns and pushed for the reunion of millions of people of the ethnic group, separated by British colonialists from ancient Afghanistan under a deal with a former Afghan ruler.
Ghani urged the media to help the protesters present their demands, calling the march as “a wake-up call against fundamentalism.”
Pakistani tribesmen, who were holding the long march to seek justice for Naqeebullah Mehsud, found Ghani’s statement uncalled for.
“We are patriotic Pakistanis and cannot allow anyone to interfere in our internal issues,” Mehmood Khan Mehsud, a tribal elder who is supporting the protest, told Arab News.
“The Afghan president should try to put his own house in order by cracking down against militants instead of poking his nose in Pakistan’s internal affairs,” he suggested.
He said their protest was apolitical and they were just struggling to get justice for Mehsud.
“Ashraf Ghani has tried to incite the tribal people against our government and we condemn it with one voice,” said another tribal leader Samiullah Burki.
“We have rendered invaluable sacrifices in the war against terrorism and continue to do so to make Pakistan a peaceful and prosperous country,” he said.
Pakistani tribesmen call off sit-in, reject Ghani’s support of their protest
Pakistani tribesmen call off sit-in, reject Ghani’s support of their protest
Israeli hostages highlighted at Boulder Jewish Festival after attack on group urging their release
- Demonstrators handed out stickers stamped with “611,” representing the 611 days since the first Israeli hostages were taken by Hamas militants
BOULDER, Colorado: For the 611 days since Omri Miran was taken hostage by Hamas, his family has lived in fear, his brother-in-law told those gathered at the Boulder Jewish Festival on Sunday, one week after a man firebombed a group calling for the release of Israeli hostages at the mall where Moshe Lavi now spoke.
“We received only partial, limited and at times horrifying proof of life,” Lavi said to a hushed crowd. “We don’t know how much he’s suffering, deprived of food, water, sunlight, tortured, abused, as I speak to you now.”
For its 30th year, the Jewish cultural festival centered on the stories of Israeli hostages after authorities said man who yelled “Free Palestine” threw Molotov cocktails at Boulder demonstrators calling for their release. Festival organizers said they reimagined it to focus on healing and center the group’s cause — raising awareness of the 55 people believed to still be in captivity in Gaza.
Authorities said 15 people and a dog were victims of the attack at the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. They include eight women and seven men, ranging in age from 25 to 88. One is a Holocaust survivor.
Not all were physically injured, and some are considered victims for the legal case because they were present and could potentially have been hurt.
Run for Their Lives, the group targeted in the attack, started in October 2023 after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 others hostage. The Boulder chapter, one of 230 worldwide, walks at the mall every weekend for 18 minutes, the numerical value of the Hebrew word “chai,” which means “life.”
Several hundred people joined the Sunday walk that typically draws only a couple dozen. Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper was among the participants. Demonstrators handed out stickers stamped with “611,” representing the 611 days since the first Israeli hostages were taken by Hamas militants.
On a stage near the site of the attack, hundreds gathered to listen to speakers and songs. Vendors sold traditional Jewish and Israeli cuisine. In tents marked “Hostage Square,” rows of chairs sat empty save for photos of the hostages and the exhortation “Bring them home now!”
Lavi thanked local demonstrators for their bravery in advocating for his family. He described Miran as a gentle and loving gardener, husband and father to two young children.
Merav Tsubely, an Israeli-American who came to the festival from a city north of Boulder, watched as hostages’ families thanked those gathered in recorded video messages. One of Miran’s children appeared on screen and said in Hebrew, “When daddy comes back from Gaza, he’ll take me to kindergarten.”
“Just seeing them speaking to us, here, with all they’re going through, their supporting us is kind of mind blowing,” Tsubely said, her eyes welling. “It just reminds us how connected we all are.”
Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, was charged for the attack Thursday in Colorado state court with 118 counts, including attempted murder, assault, illegal use of explosives and animal cruelty. He was also charged with a hate crime in federal court.
Soliman, an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the US illegally, told police he was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people,” a reference to the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.
The violence in downtown Boulder unfolded against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, which continues to inflame global tensions and has contributed to a spike in antisemitism in the US It also came at the start of the holiday of Shavuot, which commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai in Egypt.
US immigration officials took Soliman’s wife and five children, who also are Egyptian, into custody Tuesday. They have not been charged in the attack. A federal judge on Wednesday granted a request to block their deportation.
The Boulder Police Department and the FBI coordinated to provide increased security at the festival as well as local synagogues and the Boulder Jewish Community Center. Officers guarded the event’s entrances, and police Chief Stephen Redfearn said some plainclothes officers would be present in the crowd. On a rooftop near the stage, three held rifles and used binoculars to monitor the crowd as drones buzzed overhead.
Matan Gold-Edelstein’s father was present last weekend and helped douse the fire that burned an older woman. Gold-Edelstein, a 19-year-old college student, said the well-attended festival was a great show of humanity, regardless of religion or politics.
“We’re not here to be in support of a war,” he said. “We’re here in support of our religion, in support of our people and in support of the innocent people who are still being held hostage.”
Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the US. Here’s what to know
- The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology
DAKAR, Senegal: President Donald Trump has banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States and restricted access for those from seven others, citing national security concerns in resurrecting and expanding a hallmark policy from his first term that will mostly affect people from Africa and the Middle East.
The ban announced Wednesday applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The heightened restrictions apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the US and don’t hold a valid visa.
The policy takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. and does not have an end date.
Here’s what to know about the new rules:
How Trump justified the ban
Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.
The travel ban stems from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the US
The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” the administration said.
In a video posted on social media, Trump tied the new ban to a terrorist attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The man charged in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. US officials say he overstayed a tourist visa.
Who is exempt from the ban, Which countries are affected
Trump said nationals of countries included in the ban pose “terrorism-related” and “public-safety” risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas. He also said some of these countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their citizens.
His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report about tourists, businesspeople and students who overstay US visas and arrive by air or sea, singling out countries with high percentages of nationals who remain after their visas expired.
“We don’t want them,” Trump said.
The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on special immigrant visas, who were generally the people who worked most closely with the US government during the two-decade war there.
The list can be changed, the administration said in a document, if authorities in the designated countries make “material improvements” to their own rules and procedures. New countries can be added “as threats emerge around the world.”
State Department guidance
The State Department instructed US embassies and consulates on Friday not to revoke visas previously issued to people from the 12 countries listed in the ban.
In a cable sent to all US diplomatic missions, the department said “no action should be taken for issued visas which have already left the consular section” and that “no visas issued prior to the effective date should be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.”
However, visa applicants from affected countries whose applications have been approved but have not yet received their visas will be denied, according to the cable, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
And, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting on Monday.
How the ban differs from 2017’s
Early in Trump’s first term, he issued an executive order banning travel to the US by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
It was one of the most chaotic and confusing moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those nations were either barred from getting on flights to the US or detained at US airports after they landed. They included students and faculty, as well as businesspeople, tourists and people visiting friends and family.
The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid legal challenges until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
That ban affected various categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.
Reactions to Trump’s order
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s government condemned the travel ban, characterizing it in a statement as a “stigmatization and criminalization campaign” against Venezuelans.
Chad President Mahamat Deby Itno said his country would suspend visas for US citizens in response to the ban.
Aid and refugee resettlement groups also denounced it.
“This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.
But reactions to the ban ran the gamut from anger to guarded relief and support.
In Haiti, radio stations received a flurry of calls Thursday from angry listeners, including many who said they were Haitians living in the US and who accused Trump of being racist, noting that the people of many of the targeted countries are Black.
Haitian-American Elvanize Louis-Juste, who was at the airport Sunday in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a flight to her home state of Florida, said many Haitians wanting to come to the US are simply seeking to escape violence and unrest in their country.
“I have family in Haiti, so it’s pretty upsetting to see and hear,” Louis-Juste, 23, said of the travel ban. “I don’t think it’s a good thing. I think it’s very upsetting.”
William Lopez, a 75-year-old property investor who arrived from Cuba in 1967, supports the travel ban.
“These are people that come but don’t want to work, they support the Cuban government, they support communism,” Lopez said at a restaurant near Little Havana in Miami. “What the Trump administration is doing is perfectly good.”
National Guard faces off with protesters hours after arriving in Los Angeles on Trump’s orders
- California governor accuses Trump of a “complete overreaction” designed to create a spectacle of force
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region
LOS ANGELES: Tear gas was fired at protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday when some demonstrators moved close to National Guard troops and shouted insults at them, hours after President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the military over the objections of the governor and mayor.
The confrontation broke out as hundreds of people protested in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where several of the newly-arrived National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields.
Video showed uniformed officers shooting off the smoke-filled canisters as they advanced into the street, forcing protesters to retreat. It was not immediately clear what prompted the use of chemical irritants or which law enforcement agency fired them.
Minutes later, loud popping sounds erupted again, as some protesters chanted “go home” and “shame.” One person was taken to the ground by uniformed officers. Another appeared to be bleeding from their head.
Around 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early Sunday on orders from Trump, who accused Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of failing to stanch recent protests targeting immigration agents.
The move appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Deployment follows days of protest
The deployment followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
As federal agents set up a staging area Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.
Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed above 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement.
The deployment of the National Guard came over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who accused Trump of a “complete overreaction” designed to create a spectacle of force.
The recent protests remain far smaller than past events that have brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Trump says there will be ‘very strong law and order’
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.
Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not gonna get away with it.”
Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He didn’t elaborate.
Trump also said that California officials who stand in the way of the deportations could face charges. A Wisconsin judge was arrested last month on accusations she helped a man evade immigration authorities.
“If officials stay in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges,” Trump said.
Newsom called Trump on Friday night and they spoke for about 40 minutes, according to the governor’s office. It was not clear if they spoke Saturday or Sunday.
There was some confusion surrounding the exact timing of the guard’s arrival. Shortly before midnight local time, Trump congratulated the National Guard on a “job well done.” But less than an hour later, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said troops had yet to arrive in the city.
Defense secretary threatens to deploy active-duty Marines ‘if violence continues’
In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California’s politicians and protesters of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans’ safety.”
“Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,” McLaughlin added.
The troops included members of the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense.
In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism” and “usurping the powers of the United States Congress.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, endorsed the president’s move, doubling down on Republicans’ criticisms of California Democrats.
“Gavin Newsom has shown an inability or an unwillingness to do what is necessary, so the president stepped in,” Johnson said.
Who is Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay who was shot during a campaign rally in Bogota?
- Uribe Turbay, 39, who has announced he intends to run for president next year, was in serious condition following surgery, a day after the shooting
- He launched his presidential bid in March and has become a prominent opposition voice against the government of President Gustavo Petro
Conservative Colombian Sen. Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot and seriously injured during a campaign rally in the capital, Bogota. The brazen attack captured on video shook a nation that decades ago regularly saw kidnappings and killings of politicians and high profile people.
Uribe Turbay, 39, who has announced he intends to run for president next year, was in serious condition following surgery Sunday, a day after the shooting, and doctors said he was going through “critical hours.”
Here’s what to know about the conservative politician:
Presidential contender
A member of the right-wing Democratic Center party, Uribe Turbay has become a prominent opposition voice against the government of President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist politician to become the leader of Colombia. Petro cannot seek reelection in 2026.
Uribe Turbay, whose family had also suffered political violence, launched his presidential bid in March. In October last year, he had posted a video on social media announcing his intention to run, choosing the mountains of Copacabana in the department of Antioquia as a backdrop.
The country will hold a presidential election on May 31, 2026.
“A place with deep meaning for me,” he said in the video. “It was here that my mother was kidnapped by Pablo Escobar and was killed when I was about to turn five.”
His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was abducted by the Medellin Cartel and killed in 1991, one of Colombia’s most violent periods.
The attack on Uribe Turbay on Saturday shocked the nation and revived memories of an era when political violence affected Colombian public life.
Prominent political family
Uribe Turbay entered politics early, being elected to Bogota’s City Council at age 25 in 2012. In 2016, he was appointed the city’s secretary of government by then-Mayor Enrique Peñalosa.
In 2022, he became senator after being invited to run by former President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, no relation.
Uribe Turbay was born into a prominent political family. He is the grandson of former President Julio César Turbay Ayala, who served from 1978 to 1982, and the paternal grandson of Rodrigo Uribe Echavarría, a former director of the Liberal Party.
He was not considered a front-runner in next year’s race, according to recent polls, and was still facing competition within his political coalition. In his pre-campaign messaging, Uribe Turbay focused heavily on security, seeking to inspire investments and promote economic stability.
‘Reserved prognosis’
The senator is going through what authorities have described as “critical hours” after undergoing surgery at a private clinic in Bogotá.
“He survived the procedure; these are critical moments and hours for his survival,” said Bogotá Mayor Carlos Galán early Sunday after receiving information from the medical staff at the Fundación Santa Fe clinic.
“His condition is extremely serious and the prognosis is reserved,” the clinic added hours later in a new medical report.
Police arrested a 15-year-old boy for the shooting, whom they considered the perpetrator. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.
Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office condemned the attack, saying the country “cannot allow a return to dark times when violence sought to silence ideas, candidacies or political leadership.”
How conflict, climate shocks and collapsing aid budgets are pushing millions to the brink of starvation
- Global hunger has reached an unprecedented tipping point, as rates of acute food insecurity and malnutrition rise for the sixth consecutive year
- Nearly 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women and girls, reflecting a stark reflection of systemic gender inequality
DUBAI: There is more than enough food in the world to feed the entire global population, yet 733 million people still go hungry, including 38 million children under five years of age, according to the latest aid agency data.
Global hunger has reached an unprecedented tipping point, with 343 million people across 74 countries deemed acutely food insecure, Stephen Anderson, a representative of the World Food Programme in the GCC, told Arab News.
“This figure represents a 10 percent increase from the previous year and is just shy of the record number seen during the pandemic,” he said.
Anderson said that WFP is supporting about 123 million of the most vulnerable — but nearly half of them (58 million) are at risk of losing food assistance due to funding shortages.
The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises delivers a stark warning — that without urgent action, today’s crisis could spiral into a full-blown catastrophe across some of the world’s most fragile regions.
UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Joyce Azzam said that hunger is no longer a problem of supply — it is a matter of justice.
Hunger today isn’t caused by a lack of food — it’s caused by a lack of fairness,” Azzam told Arab News. “We’re still treating it like a temporary emergency instead of the ongoing crisis that it is.”
Azzam described hunger not as a side-effect, but as a symptom of broken systems, deep inequality and prolonged neglect.
“Unless we confront those root causes — not just with aid, but with bold policy and deep empathy — this trend won’t just continue, it will accelerate.”
The GRFC report, based on consensus among partner organizations, echoed recent WFP findings, revealing that 295.3 million people across 53 countries faced acute food insecurity in 2024.
It shows an increase of 13.7 million people facing acute food security from 2023, marking the sixth consecutive year of rising hunger.
“The year 2024 marked the worst year on record since GRFC tracking began in 2016,” Anderson said.
Catastrophic hunger — known as “Phase 5,” which indicates “extreme lack of food, starvation, death, destruction and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels” under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — doubled to 1.9 million people, 95 percent of whom are in Gaza and Sudan.
Famine was officially declared in Gaza in 2024. Conditions have now worsened as a result of an 11-week aid blockade imposed by Israeli authorities on March 2.
Since then, at least 29 children and elderly people have died from starvation-related causes, according to Palestinian health authorities. Aid agencies fear the real figure could be far higher.
Azzam said that events in Gaza reflect a broader pattern in which hunger is being weaponized.
“In these regions — hunger is being used as a weapon. It’s deliberate. And it’s devastating,” she said, recalling her own life growing up amid the Lebanese civil war. “Hunger during conflict is about so much more than food. It’s about dignity being stripped away, day by day.”
As of the latest assessment in March 2024, the IPC Famine Review Committee classified the entire population of Gaza as being in IPC Phase 3 or higher, meaning everyone is in crisis, emergency, or catastrophic food insecurity.
More than 500,000 people — roughly one in every four Gazans — were assessed to be in IPC Phase 5.
Sudan faces a similarly dire scenario. Famine was officially declared in multiple regions of the country as a result of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
Since the start of the war in April 2023, which has devastated infrastructure, disrupted agricultural production and severely limited humanitarian access, nearly 12 million people have been forced from their homes, leading to widespread displacement.
The deteriorating situation has exacerbated food insecurity, leading to famine conditions in August 2024.
In Yemen, the hunger crisis has also intensified in 2025, with the WFP warning that more than 17 million people — nearly half the population — are facing acute food insecurity. This figure is projected to rise to 19 million by the end of the year.
“Protracted wars also inflate food prices and we see this in Yemen where staple costs rose 300 percent since 2015, paralyzing markets,” Anderson said.
More than a decade of conflict has devastated the country’s economy, healthcare system and infrastructure, leaving more than half the population reliant on humanitarian aid.
However, soaring needs continue to outpace funding and resources.
“These funding gaps have forced WFP to cut rations for 40 percent of the people we served in 2023, as was the case in Yemen and Afghanistan,” Anderson said.
Malnutrition in Yemen is also surging, particularly among women and children.
WFP and UNICEF report that 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished — more than 537,000 of them severely so — while 1.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are also affected.
In the western coastal region of Hodeidah, malnutrition rates have exceeded 33 percent, with dwindling aid and funding cuts forcing the WFP to scale back food distributions.
Children and pregnant or breastfeeding women are among the hardest hit in food-insecure regions. According to the WFP, 60 percent of the people who are experiencing chronic hunger are women and girls — a number that reflects systemic inequalities.
“When food becomes scarce, women and girls are the first to feel it — and the last to be prioritized,” Azzam said. “We cannot address hunger without addressing gender. Period.”
She added: “That’s not just a statistic — it reflects deep, structural inequality. In many households, women skip meals so their children or husbands can eat. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are especially vulnerable, and often face severe malnutrition without access to basic healthcare.”
This is echoed in the GRFC report, which found that 10.9 million pregnant or breastfeeding women across 22 countries are acutely malnourished.
Azzam also pointed out that hunger has particularly devastating effects on adolescent girls, who are often pulled out of school — not only because of poverty, but because they are expected to support their families, care for siblings, or earn an income.
In some of the most desperate situations, families may even marry off their daughters to reduce the number of mouths to feed and gain short-term financial relief.
“Hunger also increases the risk of gender-based violence,” Azzam said. “When resources are scarce and systems collapse, exploitation and abuse rise — especially for women and girls.”
Other factors driving food insecurity include climate-related disasters, such as droughts and floods intensified by the El Nino effect, a natural climate phenomenon that occurs when surface ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become unusually warm.
In 2024, this phenomenon affected 96 million people across 18 countries, more specifically in southern Africa, southern Asia and the Horn of Africa, the GRFC report found.
In the Horn of Africa, successive droughts between 2020 and 2024 — followed by severe flooding — have devastated pastoral livelihoods, Anderson said.
Somalia, for instance, saw its cereal output plummet by 50 percent in 2023. In the Sahel, erratic rainfall and advancing desertification have also taken a toll. “Niger’s millet production dropped 30 percent,” Anderson added.
These environmental shocks are now colliding with conflict. “In Mali and Burkina Faso, climate and insecurity are trapping communities in hunger cycles,” he said.
A
zzam, who holds a PhD in environmental management, warned that the world is witnessing a “dangerous unraveling” of the systems that once sustained vulnerable communities.
“When fragile communities are hit by climate shocks — floods, droughts, desertification — they don’t just lose crops. They lose soil, homes, water sources, entire ways of life,” she said.
Azzam called for urgent investment in “climate-smart, locally-led solutions,” including regenerative agriculture and sustainable water systems.
Economic shocks, including inflation and currency devaluation, have compounded the problem, pushing some 59.4 million people into hunger.
“Combined with economic instability, many are left with no choice but to migrate, abandon their land or depend entirely on aid — a cycle that leaves little room for recovery,” Azzam said.
If current trends continue, “entire regions could become uninhabitable,” leading to mass displacement, overcrowded urban centers and increased conflict over dwindling resources, she said.
“Most tragically, we’ll see children growing up malnourished, undereducated and cut off from opportunity — a lost generation shaped by crisis,” she added.
To make matters worse, significant cuts to humanitarian spending by the world’s biggest state donors have led to the suspension of nutrition services for more than 14 million children in vulnerable regions, according to the GRFC report.
“The Global Report on Food Crises reflects a world dangerously off course,” said Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, responding to the findings.
In light of these alarming trends, the GRFC called for a comprehensive humanitarian reset — urging ceasefires in conflict zones such as Gaza and Sudan, investment in resilient local food systems, debt relief, and scaled-up climate adaptation to protect the most vulnerable.
“Without urgent, committed action, the gap between those who need help and those who receive it will only grow,” Azzam said. “And in that gap, lives are lost — not because we couldn’t act, but because we didn’t.”
