Region

NAIROBI — More than 1.6 million children aged under five will suffer from malnutrition next year in South Sudan, following a surge in waterborne diseases due to flooding, the UN’s World Food Programme said on Monday.

The world’s newest nation has endured deadly conflict, natural disasters, economic malaise and relentless political infighting since it won independence from Sudan in 2011.

As flooding becomes an annual affair in some parts of the country, people living in waterlogged areas have struggled to access food while also grappling with the spread of disease.

“More than 1.6 million children under five years of age are expected to suffer from malnutrition in 2024,” the WFP said.

In Rubkona county, where floodwaters have submerged large tracts of land, forcing entire communities to live on small islands since 2021, the cost of food staples has climbed by more than 120 per cent since April.

The county, which lies in the north of the country, is forecast to face catastrophic levels of hunger by April 2024.

‘Hunger emergency’

“This is the reality of living on the frontline of the climate crisis,” said Mary-Ellen McGroarty, WFP’s country director in Juba.

“We’re seeing an extremely concerning rise in malnutrition which is a direct result of living in overcrowded and waterlogged conditions,” she said.

“The spread of waterborne diseases unravels any work humanitarian agencies do in preventing and treating malnutrition and it is young children who are suffering the impact most severely,” she added.

The crisis has been compounded by the return of hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees fleeing Sudan’s brutal war, with WFP warning last month that families were facing “a hunger emergency”.

Since fighting erupted in Sudan in mid-April, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Multiple truces have failed to stop the violence that has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis engulfing the wider region.

One of the world’s poorest nations, South Sudan has spent nearly half its life at war, with some 380,000 people killed during a five-year civil war between rival leaders who share power today.

The United Nations has repeatedly criticised South Sudan’s leadership for its role in stoking bloodshed, cracking down on political freedoms and plundering public coffers.

South Sudan has large oil reserves but it remains in a “serious humanitarian crisis”, according to the World Bank.

It said in September that about 9.4 million people or 76 per cent of the population were estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance in 2023.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday urged an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict, as he warned that the bombarded Gaza Strip was becoming a "graveyard for children".

"The unfolding catastrophe makes the need for a humanitarian ceasefire more urgent with every passing hour," he told reporters at the UN headquarters.

"The parties to the conflict, and, indeed, the international community,  face an immediate and fundamental responsibility: to stop this inhuman collective suffering and dramatically expand humanitarian aid to Gaza," he said.

"The nightmare in Gaza is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is a crisis of humanity."

According to the health ministry in Gaza, 10,222 people have died including more than 4,000 children in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its strikes in retaliation.

Guterres also deplored the killings of media workers. According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 36 journalists and media workers have been killed.

“More journalists have reportedly been killed over a four-week period than in any conflict in at least three decades,” Guterres said.

Guterres was formally launching a recently announced $1.2 billion UN humanitarian appeal to help 2.7 million Palestinians over the entire Gaza Strip and parts of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Aid trucks have been coming into Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, but the level remains well below the level before October 7, with Israel saying it needs time for security checks of vehicles, and they are not bringing fuel.

“Without fuel, newborn babies in incubators and patients on life support will die,” Guterres said.

“The way forward is clear. A humanitarian ceasefire, now. All parties respecting all their obligations under international humanitarian law,” he said.

Guterres again voiced alarm about the “clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing”.

“Let me be clear: No party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law,” he said without naming Israel. 

RAMALLAH, Occupied Palestine — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gazans "must not be forcibly displaced", speaking on a surprise visit on Sunday to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In Gaza nearly 9,800 people, also mostly civilians, have died in Israel's land, air and sea attack, according to the health ministry in Gaza.

"The secretary reaffirmed the United States' commitment to the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and resumption of essential services in Gaza and made clear that Palestinians must not be forcibly displaced," said a summary of the meeting released by the US State Department.

Abbas condemned what he labelled a "genocide" unfolding in the Gaza Strip, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

"I have no words to describe the genocide and destruction suffered by our Palestinian people in Gaza at the hands of Israel's war machine, with no regard for the principles of international law," Abbas was quoted as saying to Blinken.

Blinken flew into Tel Aviv on Sunday morning and travelled in a high-security convoy to the Ramallah headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, the body which, he recently said, should replace the Hamas government in Gaza.

Violence in West Bank 

But Abbas said the Palestinian Authority could only take power if a "comprehensive political solution" is found for the Palestinian-Israel conflict encompassing the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, according to Wafa.

Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, after being blocked from exercising real power despite winning a parliamentary election the previous year.

The US Secretary of State is the second high-ranking Western visitor to the West Bank since the war started, following French President Emmanuel Macron.

The unannounced trip came amid sharply rising violence in the West Bank since the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

Blinken and Abbas “discussed efforts to restore calm and stability in the West Bank, including the need to stop extremist violence against Palestinians and hold those accountable responsible”, said the State Department.

The US “remains committed to advancing equal measures of dignity and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike”, it added.

More than 150 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops and Jewish settlers since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Authority.

Four were killed on Sunday in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli army.

Blinken’s meeting with Abbas, whose secular Fateh Party is Hamas’s rival, came at a time Washington has heaped political and military support on its ally Israel.

Blinken has urged “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza on his latest tour of the Middle East, to protect civilians and ease aid deliveries to the densely populated territory.

The United States has also advocated for a two-state solution as the only path out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

BEIRUT — Four rescue workers were injured on Sunday in an Israeli bombing in southern Lebanon that hit two ambulances, according to the association that owned the vehicles and state media.

The border area between the two countries has been host to multiple exchanges of fire, in particular between Iran-backed group Hizbollah and Israel, since the start..

Lebanon's National News Agency said the latest Israeli strike targeted two ambulances belonging to the Risala Scout association, which operates rescue teams and is affiliated with the Shiite Amal movement, a Hizbollah ally.

The association said "a drone from the Israeli occupation forces deliberately targeted... the two vehicles, causing moderate injuries to four paramedics".

It said the attack took place at dawn when the two ambulances were called to evacuate wounded in the village of Tayr Harfa, some three kilometres from the Israeli border.

Since October 7, at least 76 people have been killed on the Lebanese side in cross-border skirmishes, according to an AFP tally, including 58 Hizbollah fighters.

Six soldiers and one civilian have been killed on the Israeli side.

Hizbollah said on Sunday that two more of its fighters had been killed that morning.

Rising tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border have raised concerns that the war could spill over into a wider conflagration.

In his first speech since fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas, Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Friday accused the United States of being "entirely responsible" for the war.

He also warned Israel against the "folly" of an attack on Lebanon, adding that halting its "aggression against Gaza" would prevent a regional conflict.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli military and powerful Lebanese movement Hizbollah engaged in cross-border clashes on Saturday, with both claiming to have hit each other's positions along the frontier.

The latest skirmishes came a day after Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip could turn into a regional conflict if Israel pushed on with its offensive in the Palestinian territory.

On Saturday, the Israeli military said it had struck "two terrorist cells" and a Hizbollah post after an attempted attack from Lebanon.

Hizbollah said it had simultaneously attacked five Israeli positions along the border.

Hours later it announced a new attack on the Al Abbad Israeli position without specifying what kind of weapon was used.

Hizbollah chief blames US 

The Lebanon-Israel border has seen regular cross-border shelling over the past month, with firing between the Israeli military on one side and the powerful Hizbollah and its allies on the other.

In his first speech since the Israel-Hamas war broke out four weeks ago, Nasrallah warned on Friday that "all options" were open for an expansion of the conflict to Lebanon as he blamed the United States for the war in Gaza.

"America is entirely responsible for the ongoing war on Gaza and its people, and Israel is simply a tool of execution," Nasrallah said in a televised broadcast, calling the conflict "decisive".

"Whoever wants to prevent a regional war, and this is addressed to the Americans, must quickly stop the aggression on Gaza," he said.

ISTANBUL — Turkey said on Saturday it was recalling its ambassador to Israel and breaking off contacts with the Israeli occupation's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in protest at the bloodshed in Gaza.

Palestinian ally Turkey had been gradually mending its torn relations with Israel until last month's start of Israel's war on Gaza.

The Turkish foreign ministry said Ambassador Sakir Ozkan Torunlar was being recalled for consultations "in view of the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza caused by the continuing attacks by Israel against civilians, and Israel's refusal [to accept] a ceasefire".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan separately told reporters that he held Netanyahu personally responsible for the growing civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip.

"Netanyahu is no longer someone we can talk to. We have written him off," Turkish media quoted Erdogan as saying.

Israel had earlier withdrawn all diplomats from Turkey and other regional countries as a security precaution.

The Israeli foreign ministry said last weekend it was “reevaluating” its relations with Ankara because of Turkey’s increasingly heated rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.

Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkey was not fully breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel.

“Completely severing ties is not possible, especially in international diplomacy,” Erdogan said.

He said MIT intelligence agency chief Ibrahim Kalin was spearheading Turkey’s efforts to try and mediate an end to the war.

“Ibrahim Kalin is talking to the Israeli side. Of course, he is also negotiating with Palestine and Hamas,” Erdogan said.

But he said Netanyahu bore the primary responsibility for the violence and had “lost the support of his own citizens”.

“What he needs to do is take a step back and stop this,” Erdogan said.

The Turkish leader had taken a more cautious tone in the first days of the war.

But he led a massive rally in Istanbul last weekend during which he accused the Israel government of behaving like a “war criminal” and trying to “eradicate” Palestinians.