The United Arab Emirates is alarmed by the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding in Sudan, with severe food insecurity affecting over 25 million Sudanese citizens. 

We express our deepest concern over the declared famine in parts of North Darfur, particularly in Zamzam camp, which shelters over half a million displaced people, the likelihood of famine in the Abu Shouk and Al Salam camps, and the nine additional Sudanese states where people are living in catastrophic hunger conditions.

The UAE welcomes today’s UN Security Council meeting which highlights the urgency of the situation of famine in Sudan.

It is imperative that the international community maintains its focus on Sudan. 

The UAE affirms that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan demands an emergency response that helps secure a ceasefire and facilitates the swift delivery of humanitarian aid.

Trucks full of lifesaving aid are held on the border of Sudan while thousands starve across the country, including in Zamzam Camp and Northern Darfur.

The Sudanese Armed Forces must lift its restrictions on humanitarian access and the Rapid Support Forces must ensure that organisations and humanitarian workers are allowed to operate safely, without fear of attack, in order to reach people in need. 

The UAE unequivocally condemns the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the denial of humanitarian access for civilians in need, and the indiscriminate attacks that make it impossible for people to receive assistance – all these are clear violations of international humanitarian law. 

The UAE stresses that the harrowing developments on the ground require the urgent scale-up of cross-border and cross-line humanitarian access to save millions of lives.

The international community cannot allow the people of Sudan to be used as a political bargaining chip.

The UAE calls on the Security Council to utilise all the tools at its disposal to address the catastrophic situation in Sudan.

This includes considering, if necessary, authorising UN humanitarian agencies to reach people in need across the country, through both cross-line and cross-border routes.

The Council’s decisive action can be critical in coordinating international efforts to bring in the aid necessary to stop this famine through neighbouring countries.

The UAE once again reiterates its call on the warring parties to agree to an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to prioritise human life over military objectives, allow for unhindered, safe, rapid and sustained passage of humanitarian assistance across the country, and engage in peace talks in good faith towards a civilian-led transition.

To that end, the UAE appreciates the efforts of the United States in organising the upcoming ceasefire talks in Geneva and those of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Switzerland for co-hosting.

The UAE will continue to support all ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach a peaceful resolution to this conflict. 

The UAE remains committed as a long-standing humanitarian partner in Sudan.

The UAE allocated USD 70 million to address the urgent humanitarian needs in Sudan, through UN agencies and humanitarian organisations, and USD 30 million to regional countries to support regional Sudanese refugees in neighouring countries of Sudan.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs&International Cooperation.

Bauchi state, Nigeria, is experiencing an overwhelming surge in malnutrition, with MSF facilities already over capacity so early in the peak season for malnutrition; MSF is scaling up our activities, including by expanding community-based programmes to detect and treat malnutrition; An expanded response is needed by state representatives and international and national stakeholders to provide the necessary care to children and their families.

In Bauchi state, like other states in northern Nigeria, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are witnessing an unprecedented surge in malnutrition. An expanded response is needed to deliver critical care to children and their families.

We are rapidly scaling up our medical response. On top of increasing bed capacity at the inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Ganjuwa local governate area, we are launching a community-integrated programme to identify and train people to diagnose and treat malnutrition at an early stage.

Bauchi state, along with the majority of northern Nigeria, is facing a malnutrition crisis. Across Nigeria, MSF teams have seen rates of malnutrition admissions rise on average 40 per cent from the same period last year.

In Bauchi, more than 5,780 children were admitted in our inpatient therapeutic feeding centre and more than 17,220 were seen at our three outpatient therapeutic feeding centres between January and June 2024. The number of admissions increased by 127 per cent for inpatient care and 123 per cent for outpatient care during the same period in 2023. Outpatient therapeutic feeding centres support malnourished children before they need to be admitted for inpatient care.

“We are very alarmed by the catastrophic increase in malnutrition admissions we have seen in Bauchi in the first half of 2024,” says Rabi Adamou, MSF’s project coordinator in Bauchi. “Although there may be many factors compounding this increase in admissions, the numbers we are seeing are incredibly high. We are only just entering the peak season for malnutrition and our facilities are over capacity and having to expand.”

MSF has been supporting the local health system in Bauchi since 2012 by responding to outbreaks of diseases like cholera, diphtheria, and Lassa fever, and providing healthcare, training medical staff, and conducting health promotion activities in communities.

Since 2022, MSF has been responding to the huge numbers of children suffering from malnutrition. Our teams currently run a 250-bed inpatient therapeutic feeding centre and an inpatient paediatric department in Kafin Madaki General hospital. We also support three outpatient therapeutic feeding centres in Kafin Madaki, Kafin Liman and Miya healthcare centres.

New community-based activities are also planned. The integrated community case management programme aims to expand the existing community-based approach to include the treatment of malnutrition.

This pilot programme in eight villages in Miya started in mid-July. To respond to the increasing number of admissions for malnutrition in the region, MSF added malnutrition treatment to the programme’s conventional activities, which include malaria and diarrhoea diagnosis and treatment.

“Given the multifaceted causes of malnutrition, it is imperative the response is equally comprehensive and spans multiple sectors,” says Nathalie Avril, MSF nutrition advisor. “This includes not only treatment but also preventative measures. Recognising the geographically widespread nature of people’s needs, the response must mirror this extent, ensuring a broad and multidisciplinary approach to help offer children this care.”

An activity for parents on the use of the mid-upper arm circumference tool will also be implemented in Bauchi. This activity trains parents and caretakers on how to measure children’s arms at home using the tool. With this, they will be able to monitor and detect malnutrition in children at an earlier stage, before severe cases develop.

“Despite the collective efforts, many challenges remain like limited access to healthcare, the lack of qualified medical staff in health facilities, provisions of medications and ready to use therapeutic foods,” says Adamou. “All of which are essential to treat children with malnutrition.”

“It is crucial that Bauchi state representatives, as well as national and international stakeholders, work together and expand the response to help deliver this critical care to children and families and prevent further increase in malnutrition numbers in the years to come,” he says.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).

Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi spoke by phone with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan.

The two leaders discussed the regional situation, especially in the Gaza Strip. They reviewed the intensive contacts by the two countries to contain the tense situation in the Middle East. The two leaders stressed the priority of achieving calm at the current stage, especially reaching an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in the Strip, to de-escalate the tension and end the humanitarian catastrophe that the people of Gaza are facing. They stressed that the main guarantor for restoring stability in the region is to find a political horizon to achieve a just and comprehensive peace, based on the two-state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The African Development Bank Group’s (www.AfDB.org) Country Report 2024 forecasts vigorous economic activity for Madagascar, with expected growth of 4.5 percent in 2024, climbing to 5.3 percent in 2025. Growth on the Grande Île was 4.4 percent in 2023, compared with 4.3 percent in 2022.

The report, entitled “Driving change in Madagascar by reforming the global financial architecture”, was published in Antananarivo by the Bank’s Country Office in conjunction with the government of Madagascar, on Wednesday 31 July 2024. Government representatives, including the Minister of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Max Andonirina Fontaine, the chief of staff of the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Florence Andrianaivohery and others from the public authorities, the private sector, civil society and development partners of the Grande Île, all contributed to wide-ranging and constructive discussions around the report.

Kevin Chika Urama, Chief Economist and Vice-President of the African Development Bank Group, responsible for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management, spoke by video message. He emphasised the importance of country reports, which shed light on national policies and feed into political dialogue between the authorities and the private sector and development partners on structural transformation. He also highlighted the necessity of reforming the global financial architecture to contribute to faster structural change in Madagascar.

Ms Andrianaivohery, for her part, commented that a fundamental reform of the global financial architecture could help her country to take advantage of new opportunities by diversifying the available funding sources, improving lending conditions and making it easier to access innovative financing, to accelerate its development.

“The theme of the Country Report 2024 is in line with the objective of the Bank’s Country Strategy Document 2022-2026 for Madagascar, which is to speed up the structural transformation of the economy, backed by industrialization to create decent, green jobs,” commented Adam Amoumoun, the Bank’s Country Manager for Madagascar. “The mid-term review of the Country Strategy Document, which took place in May 2024, showed that the results achieved were satisfactory. The African Development Bank will build on these over the remaining period of the strategy to contribute to accelerating the country’s structural transformation,” he emphasised.

Minister Max Fontaine stressed that Madagascar still has significant climate funding needs and it is important for the Bank to support the country in preparing projects and mobilizing finance from green funds.

Following the presentation of the report by the Bank’s Country Economist for Madagascar, Hamaciré Dicko, the discussions turned to macroeconomic performance and prospects, tools for promoting strong and resilient growth, progress on the structural transformation of Madagascar and reforms of the global financial architecture.

The Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Marilys Victoire Razakamanana, who acted as moderator, summarized the discussions with an emphasis on the need to increase climate funding for Madagascar.

On 31 July 2024, the African Development Bank Group’s active portfolio in Madagascar comprised 18 operations, amounting to a total of USD 1.16 billion.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

Media contact:
Communication and External Relations Department
media@afdb.org

About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is the premier multilateral financing institution dedicated to Africa’s development. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NSF).  The AfDB has a field presence in 44 African countries, with an external office in Japan, and contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member states. For more information: www.AfDB.org