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Reactive statement on the publication of the Acute Food Insecurity Analysis on South Sudan

Reacting to the latest Acute Food Insecurity analysis on South Sudan, Oxfam’s Director in South Sudan, Shabnam Baloch, said:

“Oxfam is deeply concerned by the latest findings showing that acute food insecurity in South Sudan is alarmingly high and continues to increase with 7.8 million people- nearly two in every three persons facing extreme hunger. In some areas, conditions have worsened with 73,000 people now facing starvation according to the latest IPC findings.”

“A lethal mix of conflict, collapsing markets and climate shocks combined with devastating aid cuts is pushing more families deeper into severe hunger. Communities are being cut off from help when they need it most and the systems meant to protect the most vulnerable are falling short.

“With the rainy season fast approaching, the situation is set to worsen in the coming weeks. Without urgent, scaled-up action especially—food assistance and clean water—more lives are at risk.

“This is not just a hunger crisis—it is a full-blown humanitarian emergency unfolding in plain sight. Oxfam is calling on the international community to step up support and on all parties to the conflict to end the violence, protect civilians, and allow unimpeded humanitarian access.”

END

NOTES TO EDITORS

  • Between April and July 2026, about 7.8 million people in South Sudan face high levels of acute food insecurity—an increase of roughly 280,000 since September 2025 according to the latest IPC findings.

  • Around 73,000 people are facing starvation, and a high risk of death as livelihoods collapse. As conditions worsen, areas in Luakpiny/Nasir and Ulang in Upper Nile, and Nyirol,Akobo in Jonglei, could face famine under worst-case scenarios.

  • Violence in Jongeli state has worsened the humanitarian crisis, displacing over 300,000 people within the country, while 110,000 others have fled to Ethiopia according to UNHCR. Families are facing extreme hunger (emergency levels) and a growing risk of cholera outbreak due to lack of clean water and sanitation. Women and children fleeing the conflict are enduring days-long journeys, reporting attacks, family separation, abductions and hunger along the way.

  • An estimated 7.55 million people – 53% of the population are projected to face severe food shortages (crisis level and above). Heavy rains expected later this month will further cut off humanitarian access to communities most in need.

  • At the same time, refugees fleeing the war in Sudan — now entering its fourth year — is putting more pressure on an over-stretched response. Since last year, the humanitarian coverage rate in South Sudan is the lowest since the country was created in 2011 and only 22 percent of humanitarian response plan has been funded to date.

  • Oxfam was providing lifesaving food assistance, clean water, and sanitation support to over 400,000 displaced people and host communities in Jonglei State before operations were suspended and is now continuing support in neighbouring towns.

Contact information:

[email protected]

Fossil fuel companies projected to earn almost $3,000 a second in 2026 while families struggle to afford energy bills worldwide

Six of the biggest fossil fuel companies are projected to earn $2,967 a second in profits in 2026, new Oxfam research finds, ahead of the first global conference this week on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia.

This marks an increase of almost $37 million a day compared to the 2025 profits of these six corporations – Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and TotalEnergies. Their total projected fossil fuel profits of 2026 are $94 billion: enough to provide solar power for the energy needs of almost 50 million people in Africa.

In the context of the global energy crisis, Oxfam commissioned new polling in seven countries. It found that three times as many citizens supported greater government investment in renewable energy compared to increasing fossil fuel extraction, and approximately two thirds (68 percent) supported increasing taxes on the profits of large oil and gas corporations to help fund the transition to renewables.

Currently, families around the world continue to be pushed into energy poverty as geopolitical instability, the impacts of escalating violence in the Middle East that has already taken many lives, and the sharp increase in the wealth of the super-rich in contrast to everyone else is leaving ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.

A huge proportion of the profits from fossil fuels are going straight into the pockets of the wealthiest 1%, based mainly in the Global North, who are profiting from the subsequent climate destruction these corporations cause while working to maintain global dependence on fossil fuels by monopolising wealth and political influence.

“A just transition away from fossil fuels must support people in poorer countries, who face the brunt of climate disasters while their governments are forced to spend more money on repaying debts than on education or health, let alone climate adaptation,” said Mariana Paoli, Climate Policy Lead at Oxfam. “Taxing the richest polluters who have no intention of investing in a clean future is central to a just transition. At Santa Marta, governments must end the pollutocrat era.”

Fossil fuel corporations and the super-rich that profit from them are entrenching inequality and turning their backs on the people most impacted by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis. Just last month, ExxonMobil announced a significant reduction of a third of its planned investment in low-carbon energy projects and TotalEnergies refused to adopt a net zero transition plan aligned with 1.5 degrees.

At Santa Marta, Oxfam urges governments to:

  • Scale up public climate finance. Introduce measures to tax the corporations and the super-rich profiting from fossil fuels and the cost-of-living crisis, including through a Rich Polluter Profit Tax on fossil fuel corporations and an Excess Profit Tax across all sectors. They must tackle unsustainable sovereign debt through debt cancellation, fair restructuring, and by adopting a UN framework on sovereign debt.

  • Put justice at the heart of the energy transition through principles of responsible divestment. States and fossil fuel corporations must address the environmental damage and livelihood loss they’ve caused and centre the rights and participation of those communities most impacted by extractive industries.

  • Implement an equity-based roadmap to end fossil fuels that reflects the historical responsibility, financial capacity and fossil fuel dependence of different states.

ENDS

Notes to editors

Download our methodology note.

The global poll, conducted by market research company Norstat in April 2026, gathered responses from people in seven countries (UK, France, Brazil, Turkey, Australia, the Netherlands and Colombia). The polling also showed that support for taxing oil and gas corporations to fund the renewable energy transition crossed party lines. In six of the countries, there were more far-right respondents who supported such a tax, than those who opposed it. Download the results.

Oxfam’s report “Unjust Transition” outlines how the richest 0.1 percent are undermining efforts at a just energy transition through overconsumption of the carbon budget and investing in fossil-intensive industries. If just one year’s energy consumption of the wealthiest 1 percent were redistributed, it could meet the modern energy needs of all the people in the world without electricity seven times over. The cost of the energy needs in different countries is in the report methodology note.

See Oxfam Aotearoa’s report “Closing Time” on why Aotearoa needs a just transition from fossil fuel production.

Contact information:

For more information or to arrange an interview, please reach out to:

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Record number of people displaced into neighbouring countries as Sudan conflict marks three years – Oxfam

As Sudan’s gruelling conflict enters its fourth year, a record number of people have now been displaced by the world’s worst humanitarian and displacement crisis, accelerating hunger and suffering.

More than 30 million people – over half the population – in Sudan urgently need humanitarian support. Nearly 14 million people have been forced from their homes since the conflict began in April 2023. Almost a third – 4.5 million – fled to neighbouring countries Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya and South Sudan; countries already struggling with under-funded emergencies.

The crisis is compounded by the decimation of lifesaving support from the UN and humanitarian agencies, including Oxfam, who have been forced to either stop or scale back programmes across the region due to funding cuts. Some aid agencies have closed entirely, while those still operating are now only able to assist only a fraction of those in need.

More than 1.3 million people have crossed the border to South Sudan, a country already grappling with hunger and insecurity with over 300,000 displaced by renewed fighting in Jonglei state. In Renk, the main transit centre is now operating at more than four times its capacity.

Oxfam staff in Renk have reported that, families are having to sleep out in the open areas as spaces run out. Water and food rations have significantly reduced with families receiving less than half of their monthly food rations while access to clean water has dropped leaving thousands to rely on unsafe water sources. 26 deaths were also reported since January linked to severe malnutrition and shortages of medical supplies.

Oxfam in Africa Director, Ms Fati N’Zi-Hassane said:

“This is a damning political failure. It is devastating that millions of people are in desperate need across so many countries, at a time when aid cuts have drastically reduced support. It’s completely unacceptable.

“In Renk, before the funding cuts, Oxfam was supporting over 40,000 people with lifesaving assistance, including water, food and cash assistance. That number has dropped to just over 7,000 people and no longer includes food support. Families are having to survive on five litres of water a day and a latrine that once supported 28 people is now used by over 70, more than double the maximum standard.”

Hamdi, a mother of three who recently arrived in Renk said to Oxfam staff:

“I lost most of my family to the conflict in Sudan. I walked for days to get to South Sudan but until now I have not managed to get a space for my three children in the transit center, we had to set up a makeshift home in the open area which is not safe for us all. The food we are getting is not enough but at least we are safe from the war for now.”

Chad alone has taken in over one million refugees from Sudan – more than in the previous two decades combined – while an estimated 3 million people in the country will need food assistance at the peak of the upcoming lean season from July to September with Sudanese refugees in the eastern province being the hardest hit.

Yet funding to Chad continue to drop. U.S. contributions to the refugee crisis dropped from $87.5 million in 2024 to $39.9 million in 2025 – covering only 9.8% of requirements in 2025 even as the number of refugees continues to increase, stretching the response.

Germany and the African Union have confirmed plans to co-host the third international Sudan conference in Berlin on 15 April. The meeting aims to support peace efforts and mobilize humanitarian aid amid ongoing conflict.

Ms N’Zi-Hassane said:

“As leaders gather In Berlin, they must go beyond boardroom discussions and ensure real progress towards both peace and an urgent funding increase for the crisis. Sudanese people and their neighbours have suffered long enough. They cannot afford more meetings that do nothing to both end the conflict and the misery millions are being forced to endure.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

  • Oxfam is supporting refugee response in Chad and South Sudan with clean water and hygiene facilities, food, cash assistance and protection services.

  • In 2025, Sudan Regional Refugee Response plan was only 25% funded, leaving critical gaps in lifesaving support.

  • 4.5 million people fled to neighbouring countries according to UNHCR

  • FEWS NET estimates that nearly 3 million people will need food assistance at the height of the lean season in Chad

  • Food Insecurity and malnutrition in South Sudan remain extremely high according to the IPC with 7.5 million people –53% projected to experience high level of food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above)

  • US contribution to UNHCR Chad Refugee Response

  • Emergency standards recommend no more than 50 people per latrine at the onset of a crisis, improving to 20 over time. In Renk, South Sudan that has risen to 70 or more per latrine—pushing facilities beyond safe limits and increasing the risk of outbreaks such as cholera and dysentery.

  • For water, Sphere standards set a minimum of 7.5 litres per person per day in water-scarce emergency contexts, with an ideal target of 20 litres

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Death by aid cuts: Oxfam reaction to OECD preliminary data on aid spending in 2025

In response to the publication today of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) preliminary data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) for 2025, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead Nick Henry said:

“This report shows New Zealand aid fell by 12.8% in 2025. This is a huge problem for our Pacific neighbours who face an accelerating climate crisis.

Now more than ever, New Zealand should be standing with our Pacific neighbours with support for climate adaptation and sustainable development. But the New Zealand Government has not renewed our climate funding commitment for the Pacific and has not increased other aid enough to make up for the shortfall.

Unfortunately, this means New Zealand is now part of the problem.

Oxfam has previously praised the good work done through New Zealand’s support for climate action in the Pacific. We call on the New Zealand Government to restore and extend that support to our Pacific neighbours in this year’s budget.”

Meanwhile Oxfam’s Development Finance Lead Didier Jacobs said:

“Wealthy governments are turning their backs on the lives of millions of women, men and children in the Global South with these severe aid cuts. They collectively slashed aid by 23% in 2025. Based on aid’s crucial role in combating diseases like HIV-AIDS and malaria, the Institute of Global Health of Barcelona estimated that global aid cuts of such magnitude would kill hundreds of thousands of people in 2025 alone. If this trend continues, aid cuts could kill over 9 million people by 2030.

At a time where aid cuts are already driving instability and fostering greater inequality, government donors are cutting life-saving aid budgets while financing conflict and militarization. Cuts from donors including Germany, France and the UK will be felt by the world’s poorest. The United States shut down USAID and recklessly cut aid by $37 billion in 2025, and the Trump administration has been preparing to ask Congress for tens of billions in additional funding for bombs, ammunition, and other military equipment relating to its unlawful war against Iran.

Governments must restore their aid budgets and shore up the global humanitarian system that faces its most serious crisis in decades. There are other ways to find tens of billions of dollars, such as by taxing the $2.84 trillions of dollars that the super-rich hide in tax havens.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

The OECD preliminary data shows the DAC countries’ aid spending for 2025 was $174.3 billion, a cut of 23% from 2024.

The Institute of Global Health in Barcelona released a study in Lancet Journal (February 2026) that evaluated the impact of ODA on mortality rates around the world. It estimates that aid cuts in 2025 alone, assuming a 21% aid cut, would be responsible for 695,238 excess deaths, and that, if the aid cut trend continued, it could kill 9,416,417 by 2030.

The US Administration is reportedly planning to seek a war appropriation of $80-$100 billion from Congress.

Oxfam estimates that the top 0.1% richest people worldwide hide $2.84 trillion in tax havens. Even a small tax on that wealth would yield much more than the amount of aid cuts.

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

REACTION: Peace talks only successful if ceasefire encompasses the region, as Israel launches deadliest strikes yet on Lebanon

Reacting to news today of a two-week ceasefire between US/Israel and Iran, Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar said:

“We share in the widespread relief that the world has avoided the atrocities President Trump threatened yesterday and that the war between the US and Iran has paused while diplomatic talks commence. The ceasefire comes after weeks of escalating threats and unlawful attacks by the US and Israel on Iran, as well as retaliation from Iran, that have killed, injured, and displaced civilians across the region. However, until there is an end to all hostilities, across the entire region, no one will feel truly safe.

“This pause must become a stepping stone for wider peace. Israel’s ongoing invasion in Lebanon, its destructive occupation of Palestinian Territory, ground incursion and airstrikes in Syria, its continued attacks in Gaza, and violent attacks and territorial expansion in the West Bank are still continuing despite the provisional cessation of violence with Iran. This deadly toll across the Middle East is intolerable and must stop.

“Israel’s attacks on Lebanon continued with huge strikes today, reportedly killing at least 80 people. Another 1,500 people have been killed and 4,500 injured since last month. Israeli massive forced displacement orders cover more than 20 per cent of the population and humanitarian agencies cannot access critical projects to assist people in the most need.

“Any peace agreement must include the unconditional withdrawal of Israel’s forces in Lebanon and Syria, an end to its unlawful occupation of Gaza and the Syria Golan, and its annexation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

-Ends-

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Humanitarian organisations call for New Zealand Government support for humanitarian access in Middle East

Statement by the Council for International Development, Oxfam, Save the Children, Anglican Missions, Tear Fund and Child Fund

The conflict across the Middle East and its impact on global energy supplies continues to dominate the airwaves. While a ceasefire for Iran is welcome, we are deeply concerned at ongoing strikes in Lebanon and the continued restrictions on humanitarian aid and supplies to civilians in the region. We call on the New Zealand Government to support and enable the critical work of humanitarians through all diplomatic means available.

During the latest escalation, thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Strikes on civilian areas, schools, hospitals and airports have created enormous suffering. A whole generation of children will be scarred for life.

New Zealanders have shown enormous care and generosity to communities in the region, including through millions of dollars donated to humanitarian organisations which provide lifesaving support in Gaza and Lebanon. But new restrictions on humanitarian access are making it incredibly difficult to deliver that support.

In December 2025, the Government of Israel denied more than 30 international NGOs working in Gaza and the West Bank their re-registration, threatening their ability to continue essential hygiene, healthcare, food, and social support programs.

The Government of Israel subsequently closed crossings and aid corridors into Gaza following the escalation of the conflict in Iran. As of today, crossings remain severely restricted, disrupting the flow of essential food, medical supplies and fuel to people in dire need.

These decisions combined are deepening the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where many people cannot access enough food to feed their families, and women are being discharged into unsafe environments hours after giving birth. Ongoing strikes in Lebanon have killed hundreds of children and threaten to compound an already devastating humanitarian situation.

New Zealand has a proud history of standing up for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians during conflicts. We call on the Government to continue in this tradition by using diplomatic means to call for a ceasefire from all parties to the conflict in the Middle East, and for all parties to fully observe International Humanitarian Law.

This must include the active protection of humanitarian workers and all other civilians, as well as the freedom of humanitarian organisations to operate, travel and transport supplies into and across the territories and crossings under their control.

-Ends-

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]