Press releases

More than 133,000 people who fled the fighting in North Kivu, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), live in unimaginable conditions without one single toilet or water, posing serious consequences for their health and safety, warns Oxfam.

CEOs of Oxfam together with humanitarian and human rights organizations are appalled by the harrowing developments in Rafah, Gaza’s most populated area where 1.5 million people are sheltering as their last resort - over half a million of them children. If Israel launches its proposed ground offensive, thousands more civilians will be killed and the current trickle of humanitarian aid risks coming to a complete halt.

The Dutch Court ordered the Netherlands government to stop supplying F35 fighter jet parts to Israel within seven days, due to the clear risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law. In response to this court ruling, Michiel Servaes - Oxfam Novib Executive Director - said: "This positive ruling by the judge is very good news, especially for civilians in Gaza. It is an important step to force the Dutch government to adhere to international law, which the Netherlands has strongly advocated for in the past."

Families still reeling from the aftermath of a two-year conflict in Tigray are now resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive. The conflict and erratic rainfall throughout the north of the country has further exacerbated the planting season which threatens to plunge the region into deeper humanitarian catastrophe if nothing is done, warns Oxfam.

Oxfam among 20 aid organizations deeply concerned and outraged that some of the largest donors have suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main aid provider for millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the region. These aid cuts come amid a rapidly worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. 

Today, EU countries agreed on a renewed EU global health strategy - the EU’s global vision for funding and international cooperation in relation to health. In response, Oxfam EU health expert, Piotr Kolczynski, said: “In the EU’s Health Commissioner's own words, where you live should not determine whether you live or die. But EU countries only pay heed to these words within Europe’s borders. In the rest of the world, the EU is playing the industry's game and undermining the right to health of the world's poorest people. 

In reaction to today’s statement by the International Court of Justice order to South Africa’s court case, which requests Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent and punish the commission of all acts about the articles of the Genocide Convention, Sally Abi-Kahli, Oxfam Regional Director for the Middle East said: “Oxfam welcomes the ICJ’s order and provisional measures as a crucial step towards recognizing the ongoing atrocities in Gaza and stopping the bloodshed and unimaginable horrors that 2.3 million Palestinians have already endured. 

Oxfam and over 20 other organizations call on all States to immediately halt the transfer of weapons, parts, and ammunition to Israel and Palestinian armed groups while there is risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.

Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing an unprecedented surge of cholera cases, Oxfam warned today. The aid agency says the situation could become uncontrollable and difficult to manage due to a steady increase of COVID-19 cases and the onset of the rainy season, especially as the majority of vulnerable communities have no access to clean water and sanitation facilities - both of which are essential to prevent the spread of cholera. 
 

A staggering new poll has revealed that support for higher taxes on wealth is popular with dollar millionaires from across G20 countries. It comes as 260 millionaires and billionaires have signed a new letter demanding world leaders increase their taxes, to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The polling is part of the “Proud to Pay More” report, published alongside the letter, which profiles some of the world’s wealthiest people on why they support higher taxes on themselves.

The EU’s five richest billionaires increased their wealth by 76 percent since 2020, from 244 billion euro to 429 billion, at a rate of 5.7 million euros per hour, Oxfam reveals today. At the same time, 99 percent of the EU’s population has become poorer. These findings are based on Oxfam’s new report on inequality and global corporate power. The report also reveals that if current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade, but poverty will not be eradicated for another 229 years. 

The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020 —at a rate of $14 million per hour— while nearly five billion people have been made poorer, reveals a new Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power. If current trends continue, the world will have its first trillionaire within a decade but poverty won’t be eradicated for another 229 years.

An Oxfam spokesperson said: “The last thing Yemen needs is further conflict. Oxfam calls on the United Kingdom, United States and all other parties to de-escalate immediately and continue to advance an inclusive political settlement in Yemen. 

Israel’s military is killing Palestinians at an average rate of 250 people a day which massively exceeds the daily death toll of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam said today, as the escalation of hostilities nears its 100th day.

In reaction to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published today on Gaza warning of a risk of famine if intense hostilities and restricted humanitarian access persist or worsen, Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Director, said: “Gaza’s shocking descent into starvation was so predictable as to be premeditated, an ongoing war crime by the Government of Israel."

Today, EU negotiators have reached a long-awaited political agreement on the EU migration pact. In response, Stephanie Pope, Oxfam EU migration expert, said: “As we hear EU statements celebrating this deal, the question is, at what cost?"

In reaction to the UN Security Council’s passing of a watered-down resolution instead of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, Oxfam Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Sally Abi-Khalil said: “The failure to call for a ceasefire after five days of deliberate delays and dilutions of the resolution is incomprehensible and utterly callous. It is a profound dereliction of duty from an organization established to uphold the UN Charter to maintain peace and protect lives"

Responding to news that the EU has discarded at least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, Piotr Kolczyński, EU Health Policy Advisor at the People’s Vaccine Alliance and Oxfam, said: “This is further proof that the EU wasted millions of its COVID-19 vaccines, hoarded early in the pandemic, as it locked poorer countries out of access.

This week, EU negotiators are hammering out the final details of the long-awaited EU migration pact.

Ahead of the trilogues, Stephanie Pope, Oxfam EU migration expert, said: “The deal is nothing but a house of cards incapable of fixing the EU’s broken asylum system. After years of negotiation, we are left with a pact that ushers in increased detention, more pushbacks, and dubious deals with non-EU countries.

In response to the $2.2bn pledged at the 2nd Global Refugee Forum (GRF), Oxfam in Africa Director Fati N'Zi-Hassane said: Oxfam welcomes the pledges made to support refugees and those who are shouldering the biggest responsibility of welcoming refugees, and to shift power to communities at the frontline of response, especially refugee leaders. But the chasm between commitments made and the political realities on the ground remains enormous."