Syrian authorities announce closure of notorious desert camp

GENEVA: Food aid to help Sudanese refugees in four neighboring countries could end within the next couple of months without an urgent injection of new funding, a World Food Programme official said on Tuesday, warning of rising malnutrition levels.

Over 4 million refugees have fled Sudan’s more than two-year civil war to seven neighboring countries where shelter conditions are widely viewed as inadequate due to chronic funding shortages.

“Unless new funding is secured, all refugees will face assistance cuts in the coming months,” Shaun Hughes, the WFP’s emergency coordinator for the Sudan regional crisis, told a Geneva press briefing, calling for $200 million over six months.

“In the case of four countries — that’s the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya — WFP’s operations are now so severely underfunded, that all support could cease in the coming months as resources run dry,” he said, clarifying later that this could happen within two months.

Many of those fleeing are escaping from hunger hot spots in Sudan. A joint UN report said last month the country was at immediate risk of famine.

Hughes said that any reduction or end to rations would leave child refugees at a greater risk of malnutrition.

Asked why the funding had fallen, he cited reductions from donors across the board and rising humanitarian needs.

He added that the United States, which has reduced its foreign aid spending dramatically under President Donald Trump, remained its top donor for Sudan.

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that the Israeli army killed two people including a 15-year-old boy in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank.
“At dawn today, Tuesday, 15-year-old child Amjad Nassar Abu Awad was martyred by Israeli gunfire in the city of Ramallah,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Also at dawn today, 24-year-old young man Samer Bassam Zagharneh was martyred by Israeli gunfire near the town of Dhahiriya” in the southern West Bank, the ministry added.
The Israeli military told AFP it was “looking into” the two reported incidents.
Around 20 people, mostly young boys and teenagers, had gathered at a Ramallah hospital to mourn Abu Awad, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
In tears, the boys touched Abu Awad’s face in the white light of the hospital morgue.
Two Palestinian teenagers, aged 13 and 15, were killed last week in the West Bank towns of Al-Yamoun and Kafr Malik respectively.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Violence has soared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 that triggered the Gaza war.
Since then, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 946 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the health ministry.
Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to Israeli figures.