Global hunger increasing but funding of aid programs declining, says top World Food Programme official in GCC

Abdel-Mageed Yahia - Unprecedented hunger
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Updated 03 September 2023
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Global hunger increasing but funding of aid programs declining, says top World Food Programme official in GCC

  • Abdel-Mageed Yahia describes conflict as the number driver of food insecurity, says impact of climate change significant too
  • Lauds KSrelief donation of $6.8 million in August for rescue of critical food-aid program for Syrian refugees in Jordan

DUBAI: As conflict, natural disasters and climate change stalk swathes of the world, a simultaneous epidemic is spreading: an estimated 345 million people in 79 countries are facing acute hunger.

Abdel-Mageed Yahia, director of World Food Programme’s UAE office and representative for the Gulf Cooperation Council region, says that unless food needs are met, the hunger epidemic may become catastrophic.

“It’s true that this year, we are facing an unprecedented hunger level,” he said during a special interview with Arab News Japan recorded in Dubai.

“We said 2023 is going to be a difficult year, although we had a lot of success in 2022 when we were able to reach around 140 million people.”

Of the more than 340 million facing hunger in the world, he added, 40 million are “in the extreme level of hunger, which is one step away from famine.”




Sudanese girls who fled the conflict in Geneina in Sudan's Darfur region, receive rice portions from Red Cross volunteers in Ourang on the outskirts of Adre, Chad July 25, 2023. (Reuters)

According to Yahia, “all of it starts with the conflicts which we are seeing in different parts of the world, from the Middle East to Africa, from the Horn of Africa and the Sahel to Afghanistan.”

Climate change is also playing a major role, he said, adding: “Economic downturn is another cause, which is the impact of COVID-19.”

Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, better known as climate change, can be natural, but almost all research suggests humans are overwhelmingly responsible for global warming in the last 200 years.

Conflict, however, is the “number one” driver of food insecurity, Yahia said.

“If I can give you the example of Sudan, in a matter of just four months since the start of the conflict, you have around four million people who are displaced, who have either moved to another location inside Sudan or fled the country to neighboring countries.

“This has created a burden for the countries of destination, such as South Sudan, that were already struggling to offer assistance (to existing displaced populations).”

Such a situation is not unique to Sudan and its neighbors. Yahia, who was WFP representative, country director and emergency coordinator in Jordan, responsible for one of the largest WFP emergency operations in the Middle East region, has first-hand experience dealing with food crises.

He pointed out that hosting approximately half a million Syrian refugees whom the WFP supports in Jordan, plus a million more in Lebanon, similarly adds to the challenges already being faced by recipient countries.

While shifts in weather patterns, wars and pandemics are nothing new, the occurrence of all these events at once has forced the WFP to “prioritize,” Yahia said.

“In other words, take from the hungry to give to the starving. That is the situation we are exactly in. When you are faced with an increasing number of populations in need of humanitarian assistance on the one hand and decreasing funds on the other hand, that’s exactly what you do,” he said.

“We are struggling also with funding, because there are now, call it competing priorities, from Afghanistan to Yemen, to Syria, to the Horn of Africa, to the Sahel, to Sudan.”

He said the WFP will most likely be unable to raise the $24 billion it needs to reach 170 million of the world’s most vulnerable.

“I remember, about 15 years ago, we were talking in the WFP if we will be able to manage two crises at a time. But now, we are talking about more than 10 crises that are going on at the current time. And you see the effect of all this,” Yahia said. 

“Last year was a success because we were able to raise $14 billion and reach 140 million people. But this year, our estimate is that we may be able to reach or raise even $10 billion. So, the situation is that hunger is increasing on one side and funding is declining on the other side, which put us in a really difficult situation.”

Against this backdrop, Saudi Arabia has stepped in to save a critically important food aid program in Jordan. In August, the WFP welcomed a donation of $6.8 million from KSrelief, which made possible the continuation of its food assistance programs for Syrian refugees living in camps in Jordan.

The latest contribution is far from the Kingdom’s first: since its inception in 2015, KSrelief has contributed more than $1.25 billion to the WFP for schemes in 26 countries.




With the influx of displaced people increasing demand for food in already war-ravaged countries, the conflict in Sudan has disrupted essential supply chains and trade routes. (Reuters)

“This donation helped to rescue the operations in Jordan, rescue … the food pipeline that we have maintained to the refugees inside the camps. On Sept. 1, we were supposed to announce that we are cutting or reducing the assistance to the population in the camps. The (donation) came as a (timely) rescue of our operation in Jordan and we will see immediate effects,” Yahia said.

“The refugees in camps will continue to receive their vouchers or food rations continuously. However, there are also other refugees still, because this contribution is directed toward the refugees in the camps.

“There are refugees outside the camps. Should we not receive contributions from other donors, we will still face the situation of opting for that solution, which is a very hard decision to make. But the Saudi contribution was a real rescue of our operation in Jordan and well timed, too.”

With the influx of displaced people increasing demand for food in already war-ravaged countries, the conflict in Sudan has disrupted essential supply chains and trade routes.

“When you have a country in this crisis, import of food is disrupted, trade routes are disrupted, and so on and so forth. So, it does not look good. It was not looking good even before the crisis, and now it is going in absolutely the wrong direction,” Yahia said.

“But we are there on the ground. We started a cross-border operation from Chad into West Darfur, and then reached other areas in Sudan. With difficulty, we have been able to reach Khartoum, but (as I said) with difficulty. Access remains an issue for us.”

HUNGERFACTS

* 783m People worldwide unsure of where their next meal will come from.

* 345m People facing high levels of food insecurity globally in 2023.

* 129,000 People in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan set to experience famine.

* $25.6m Saudi donation to the WFP for Syrian refugees in Jordanian camps since 2021.

Yahia reiterated that nearly half of the Sudanese population is experiencing food insecurity. The situation was dire even before violence erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group on April 15.

“The conflict came and added more oil to the fires that were already burning,” he said. “Sudan was a host to refugees from other countries as well, despite the (precarious) economic situation. So, 19 million people are projected to need humanitarian assistance. Now we are facing issues like access because of the security situation.”

While the Sudan crisis and climate change wreak havoc on famished populations in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, one conflict threatens the food security of the entire world: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Given that the two supplied more than a quarter of the world’s wheat — 40 percent of WFP’s supplies of the cereal — the 2022 invasion threatened to cause a massive food shortage and spike in food prices worldwide, particularly for countries relying on food aid.

“We have seen, of course, sharp increases in April 2022 following the eruption of the war there, which at that time (compounded the rise) in shipping costs because you had the effect of the COVID, of the supply chain disruption at that time,” Yahia said.




Abdel-Mageed Yahia, director of the UAE Office & Representative to the GCC, UN World Food Programme, speaking during an interview with Arab News en Francais Regional Manager Ali Itani. (AN Photo)

Global food prices have returned to pre-invasion levels, he said, but warned that the ongoing conflicts may cause the supply situation to deteriorate once again.

“We will continue to see a reduction in the production of food in Ukraine because farmers cannot access their farms because of landmines, because of (problems in getting) access to ports, and so on,” he said.

According to Yahia, the WFP was able to provide approximately two billion meals to Ukrainians affected by war, and has maintained its presence on the ground as a third of Ukrainians still face food insecurity.

In July Russia withdrew from a year-old UN and Turkiye-brokered agreement that had allowed grain, foodstuffs, fertilizers and other commodities to be shipped from Ukraine’s blockaded Black Sea ports to some of the world’s most food-insecure countries.

Yahia says the collapse of the grain deal and closure of the critical Black Sea corridor could have effects far beyond the borders of Ukraine. “This might see an increase, of course, of the shipping costs to source these commodities from elsewhere in the world,” he said.




Boys stand in line as they wait to receive meals from a charity kitchen in Sanaa, Yemen. (Reuters/File Photo)

Though conflict is the main reason for the spread of hunger worldwide, climate change is also playing a major role in causing food insecurity, according to Yahia, who has more than 30 years’ experience working in the humanitarian field and has served in areas devasted by wars, genocide, famine as well as natural disasters. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2019 report Climate Change and Land stated that climate change has already begun to affect food security, particularly in low-latitude regions and arid climates of Africa.

Pastoral societies, the report added, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of changing climate.

“Climate is playing a role similar to conflict when it comes to reduction in the production of food, in terms of displacement of population, as we saw last year in the Horn of Africa, Somalia and Ethiopia among other places,” Yahia said.

“I think climate is really playing a big role here. It can no longer be talked about inside just closed rooms. Climate is a real thing affecting global food security.”

 


Erdogan accuses Israel of seeking to ‘dynamite’ Syria ‘revolution’

Updated 10 sec ago
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Erdogan accuses Israel of seeking to ‘dynamite’ Syria ‘revolution’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Israel of sowing divisions in Syria in a bid to “dynamite” the “revolution” that toppled strongman Bashar Assad.
Turkiye is a key backer of Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) led the rebel coalition which ousted Assad in December.
“Israel is trying to dynamite the December 8 revolution by stirring up ethnic and religious affiliations and turning minorities in Syria against the government,” Erdogan told a diplomacy forum in the southern Mediterranean resort of Antalya.
Erdogan’s comments come as officials from Turkiye and Israel began talks this week aimed at easing tensions over Syria.
Israel has launched air strikes and ground incursions to keep Syrian forces away from its border.
“Israel is turning into a problematic country that directly threatens the stability of the region, especially with its attacks on Lebanon and Syria,” Erdogan said.
He also said Israeli strikes were denting efforts to combat the Daesh jihadist group.

Paramilitary attack on Sudan famine-hit camp kills 25: activists

Updated 11 April 2025
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Paramilitary attack on Sudan famine-hit camp kills 25: activists

  • Shelling and intense gunfire targeted the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher on Friday

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday killed 25 civilians including women and children, in an attack on a famine-stricken camp in Sudan’s North Darfur state, activists said.
The attack, which involved shelling and intense gunfire, “targeted Zamzam displacement camp from both the southern and eastern directions,” said the local resistance committee, a volunteer aid group in North Darfur’s besieged capital of El-Fasher.
Zamzam and other densely populated camps for the displaced around El-Fasher have suffered heavily during nearly two years of fighting between Sudan’s army and the RSF.
The paramilitaries have stepped up its efforts to complete their conquest of Darfur, Sudan’s vast western region, since losing control of the capital Khartoum last month.
Eyewitnesses described seeing RSF combat vehicles infiltrating the camp under cover of heavy gunfire.
The local resistance committee said the attack was met with counter-fire but the full extent of damage was unclear due to disrupted communications and Internet shutdowns.
Zamzam was the first part of Sudan where a UN-backed assessment declared famine last year.
The conflict in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million since a struggle for power between rival generals erupted into full-blown war on April 15, 2023.


More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

Updated 11 April 2025
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More Sudanese refugees fleeing as far as Europe, UN refugee agency says

  • Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year

GENEVA: Over a thousand Sudanese refugees have reached or attempted to reach Europe in early 2025, the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Friday, citing growing desperation in part due to reduced aid in the region.
Some 12 million people have been displaced by the two-year conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has fueled what UN officials call the world’s most devastating aid crisis.
While some have recently returned home to Khartoum, millions of others in neighboring countries like Egypt and Chad face tough choices as services for refugees are being cut, including by the United States as part of an aid review.
Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency spokesperson, told a press briefing in Geneva that some 484 Sudanese had arrived in Europe in January and February, up 38 percent from the same period last year.
Around 937 others were rescued or intercepted at sea and returned to Libya — more than double last year’s figures for the same period, she added.
“As humanitarian aid crumbles and if the war does not abate, many more will have little choice than to join them,” she said.
Migrant deaths hit a record last year, the UN migration agency said, with many perishing on the Mediterranean crossing which is one of the world’s most dangerous.


UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

Updated 13 min 29 sec ago
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UN: 36 Israeli strikes in Gaza killed ‘only women and children’

  • Family of 10 killed in Israeli airstrike on Friday
  • UN rights office spokesperson warns the military strikes across Gaza were ‘leaving nowhere safe’

GAZA: Dozens of Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed “only women and children” after a ceasefire collapsed, the UN said, as an Israeli attack in the territory’s south on Friday left a family of 10 dead.
A UN rights office report also warned that expanding Israeli evacuation orders were resulting in the “forcible transfer” of people into ever-shrinking areas, raising “real concern as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza.”
Israel’s military said it was looking into the attack that killed members of the same family in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, adding separately that it had struck approximately 40 “terror targets” across the territory over the past day.
Israel resumed its Gaza strikes on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.
Since then, more than 1,500 people have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory to which Israel cut off aid more than a month ago.
“Ten people, including seven children, were brought to the hospital as martyrs following an Israeli air strike that targeted the Farra family home in central Khan Yunis,” civil defense spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
AFP footage of the aftermath showed several bodies wrapped in white shrouds and blankets, and footage of the house showed mangled concrete slabs and twisted metal.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed denounced Israel, saying: “If this is not barbarism, I ask you, what is it?“
Early Friday, Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning to residents of several areas east of Gaza City ahead of a new offensive there.
The UN decried the impact of the ongoing Israeli strikes, finding that “a large percentage of fatalities are children and women.”
“Between 18 March and 9 April 2025, there were some 224 incidents of Israeli strikes on residential buildings and tents for internally displaced people,” the UN human rights office said in Geneva.
“In some 36 strikes about which the UN Human Rights Office corroborated information, the fatalities recorded so far were only women and children.”
Israel’s military has repeatedly said Palestinian militants often hide among civilians, a charge Hamas denies.
UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani also raised concerns over “the denial of access to basic necessities within Gaza and the repeated suggestion that Gazans should leave the territory entirely.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, after meeting regional counterparts in Turkiye, urged “maximum pressure to ensure” aid is delivered into Gaza.
The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Friday at least 1,542 Palestinians have been killed since March 18, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,912.


A truce brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar that took effect on January 19 and lasted until March 17 saw the return of 33 Israeli hostages, eight of them in coffins, in exchange for around 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.
In a Passover holiday message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to bring the remaining captives home.
He spoke after US President Donald Trump suggested progress in hostage release talks, telling a cabinet meeting on Thursday that “we’re getting close to getting them back.”
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff was also quoted in an Israeli media report as saying “a very serious deal is taking shape, it’s a matter of days.”
Israeli media reported Friday that Egypt and Israel had exchanged draft documents on a ceasefire-hostage release deal.
The Times of Israel said Egypt’s proposal would mean eight living hostages and eight bodies released in exchange for a truce of between 40 and 70 days and a large number of Palestinian prisoner releases.
A senior Hamas leader who declined to be identified told journalists the group had “not received any new ceasefire offer.”
“The movement is open to any new proposal that would achieve a ceasefire, withdraw the occupation’s forces, and end the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
In his message for Passover — a holiday celebrating the biblical liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt — Netanyahu said that “together we will return our hostages.”
He has insisted that increased military pressure is the only way to get the captives home.


WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

Updated 11 April 2025
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WHO: Medicine critically low due to Gaza aid block

  • Lack of medicine making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational

GENEVA: Medicine stocks are critically low due to the aid block in Gaza, making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
“We are critically low in our three warehouses, on antibiotics, IV fluids and blood bags,” WHO official Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.