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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 7 august 2023

The UN cut their food aid this summer and these Palestinians now

struggle to find their next meal

By Julia Frankel decades and left 12 Pales- cash transfer program for
Associated Press tinians and one Israeli sol- poor families.
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — dier dead. Israel says the Only the most vulnerable,
Except for a small bag of raids are meant to thwart 150,000 people in the West
lentils and the orange juice future attacks. Bank and Gaza, continue
she reserves for guests, Al-Wafa’s 14-year-old son, to receive aid from WFP.
there is no food in Ashwaq Ammar, was shot in the Their aid will be cut if do-
Abu al-Wafa’s house in the chest during a January nors don’t provide more
northern West Bank city of raid, she said, adding to funding by November, the
Jenin. Ever since the U.N. her family’s expenses and agency recently warned.
cut her food aid in June, squeezing their food bud- Meanwhile, more than 1
she has fallen behind on get. Her husband’s income million Palestinian refugees
rent. All her money now depends on whether he in the West Bank and Gaza
goes to feeding her three Two Palestinian school boys cross a street damaged during the can pass through Israeli receive other kinds of assis-
children, she said. July Israeli army operation in the West Bank refugee camp of military checkpoints to take tance from a U.N. agency
“The fridge is empty,” al- Jenin, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) produce into Jenin. When for Palestinian refugees
Wafa said from her apart- a region gripped by its pitalized, her six children, the Israeli army closes the and their descendants.
ment on Thursday. “I can worst hunger crisis in years. ranging in age from 3 to 16, roads, his work dries up and The Palestinian Authority, in
barely hold all of this stress The WFP’s deputy execu- scraped together meals of his family skips meals. the midst of a financial cri-
in my heart.” Thousands tive director, Carl Skau, olives and bread. “Food insecurity here is sis, has said it can’t fill the
of families like al-Wafa’s announced last week that The cuts come at a partic- a symptom of something shortfall.
across the occupied West the agency has raised just ularly bad time for Palestin- larger,” said Samer Abdel- Already, the WFP cuts have
Bank and Gaza Strip go $5 billion of the $20 billion it ians in the occupied West jaber, WFP country director hurt small businesses in the
through the day not sure needs to operate fully, forc- Bank, which is witnessing a for the Palestinian territo- territories, which once bus-
where they will get their ing it to suspend aid to 38 surge in violence unseen in ries. “Conflict, access and tled with customers using
next meal now that the of its 86 countries where it nearly two decades. movement restrictions and WFP vouchers.
World Food Program has operates. Al-Wafa and Karram’s the barriers to everyday life Palestinian shop owner
halted aid to 200,000 peo- Zekriat Karram, who also homes have smashed have led to soaring unem- Anas Eqteit has seen sales
ple, 60% of beneficiaries, its lives in Jenin, said that her doors and cracked win- ployment and poverty.” plunge by 70%. He laid off
largest-ever cuts in the Pal- family has survived by rack- dows, scars from recent The WFP said it suspended three of his four workers. Be-
estinian territories. ing up debt at local gro- stepped-up military raids aid to those who could fore June, his mini-market
The agency has made cuts ceries. Now, shopkeepers into the flashpoint city, the earn additional income or in Jenin served 50 families
across the world, from war- demand payback. When latest of which marked the get other assistance, like with WFP vouchers a week.
torn Yemen to West Africa, Karram was recently hos- most intense in nearly two the Palestinian Authority’s Now, it serves five.q

A deadline arrives for Niger’s junta to reinstate the president and

some citizens cheer and fear what’s next

By Sam Mednick states, but the warning on in the darkened streets in
Associated Press the eve of the deadline the capital to stand guard
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — The raised questions about the at a dozen roundabouts
deadline arrived Sunday intervention’s fate. until morning, checking
for Niger’s military junta The July 26 coup, in which cars for weapons and
to reinstate the country’s mutinous soldiers installed heeding the junta’s call to
ousted president, but the Gen. Abdourahmane Tchi- watch out for foreign inter-
West Africa regional bloc ani as head of state, adds vention and spies.
that has threatened a another layer of complex- Some passing cars honked
military intervention faces ity to West Africa’s Sahel in support. Some people
prominent appeals to pur- region that’s struggling with called for solidarity among
sue more peaceful means. military takeovers, spread- African nations.
In the capital, coup lead- ing Islamic extremism and a ECOWAS shouldn’t have
ers appeared at a stadium shift by some states toward given the junta a one-week
rally where a chicken dec- Russia and its proxy, the deadline to reinstate Ba-
orated in the colors of for- Wagner mercenary group. Supporters of Niger’s ruling junta hold a Russian flag in Niamey, zoum but rather only up to
Niger, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)
mer colonizer France was Niger’s ousted President 48 hours, said Peter Pham,
beheaded, to cheers. Mohamed Bazoum said ECOWAS neighbors with will do next. Thousands of former U.S. special envoy
Neighboring Nigeria’s he is held “hostage” by strong militaries in the re- people at Sunday’s rally for West Africa’s Sahel re-
Senate has pushed back the mutinous soldiers. An gion, have said they op- in Niger’s capital, Niamey, gion and a distinguished
against the plan by the ECOWAS delegation was pose the use of force or cheered the coup lead- fellow at the Atlantic Coun-
regional bloc known as unable to meet with Tchi- won’t intervene militarily, ers’ appearance and ex- cil. “Now it’s dragged out,
ECOWAS, urging Nigeria’s ani, who analysts have and neighboring Mali and pressed defiance against which gives the junta time
president, the bloc’s cur- asserted led the coup to Burkina Faso — both run by both the ECOWAS threat to entrench itself,” he said.
rent chair, on Saturday to avoid being fired. Now the juntas — have said an inter- and France’s long pres- The most favorable scenar-
explore options other than junta has reached out to vention would be a “dec- ence in the region. Some io for an intervention would
the use of force. ECOWAS Wagner for assistance while laration of war” against waved Russian flags. be a force coming in with
can still move ahead, as severing security ties with them, too. Hours before Sunday’s the help of those on the in-
final decisions are made former colonizer France. It was not immediately clear deadline, hundreds of side, he said.q
by consensus by member Algeria and Chad, non- on Sunday what ECOWAS youth joined security forces