The world's leading authority on hunger crises says famine has spread to two regions of war-torn Sudan. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification says famine is happening in el-Fasher, a major city in the Darfur region, and in Kadugli, a town in the South Kordofan province. Paramilitary forces rampaged through the besieged el-Fasher last week, reportedly killing hundreds of people. Sudan has been torn apart since April 2023 by a power struggle between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The United Nations says more than 40,000 people have been killed, but aid groups believe the true number could be much higher.
Gaza's population is facing the "worst-case scenario of famine" and "widespread death" will occur without immediate action, the leading international authority on food crises has warned. Tuesday's alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — which is still short of a formal famine declaration — follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza after nearly 22 months of war. The IPC said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments, including "increasingly stringent blockades" by Israel, have "dramatically worsened" the situation.
U.N. officials, aid groups and experts have warned for months that Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of famine without formally declaring one. Even though Israel eased a 2 1/2-month blockade on the territory in May, aid groups say only a trickle of assistance is getting into the enclave. Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger 21 months into Israel's offensive, which was launched after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The leading international authority on hunger crises has warned of famine, but has not yet obtained data that would meet its conditions for declaring one.
By SAMY MAGDY, RIAZAT BUTT and ELLEN KNICKMEYER Associated Press
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has reversed cuts in emergency food aid to several nations but maintained them in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world's poorest countries. It marks the latest round of abrupt cancellations of foreign aid contracts run through the U.S. Agency for International Development and equally sudden reversals. The U.S. initially cut funding for projects in more than a dozen countries. The State Department confirmed Wednesday it reversed the cuts for emergency food programs in Somalia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Ecuador. The status of funding for six other countries is unclear. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says she wants to see funding restored.
U.S. officials say they asked for — and got — the retraction of an independent monitor's warning of imminent famine in north Gaza. The internationally Famine Early Warning System Network issued the warning this week. The new report had warned that starvation deaths in north Gaza could reach famine levels as soon as next month. It cited what it called Israel's "near-total blockade" of food and water. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, criticized the finding as inaccurate and irresponsible. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which funds the famine-monitoring group, told the AP it had asked for and gotten the report's retraction. USAID officials tell The Associated Press that it had asked the group for greater review of discrepancies in some of the data.
A new report by an independent group of experts says it's possible that famine is underway in northern Gaza, but that the war between Israel and Hamas and restrictions on humanitarian access have impeded data collection to prove it. The report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network on Tuesday said that people, including children, are dying of hunger-related causes across the besieged territory. It urges Israel's government to act urgently to allow more aid in. A formal declaration of a famine could be used as evidence at the International Criminal Court and at the International Court of Justice, where Israel faces allegations of genocide.
