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IPC Alert: Famine Spreads in Sudan

Responding to today’s Integrated Food Security Classification (IPC) alert Oxfam’s Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director, said:   

“It is deeply alarming that famine-level malnutrition has been confirmed in two additional areas of North Darfur that were previously not at risk. This is in addition to the extreme hunger levels already being experienced by communities who have suffered nearly three years of brutal war. 

“We express solidarity with the people of Sudan and remain committed to supporting those seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. The consequences of the conflict are now being felt heavily in South Sudan, where renewed violence and deepening hunger are colliding, stretching an already fragile country to breaking point – a direct result of global failure to act.  

 “Oxfam is supporting refugees and returnees in Chad and South Sudan providing life-saving assistance such as water, food, cash and hygiene support but deep funding cuts to humanitarian action are stripping away lifelines, leaving families with nothing and driving millions closer to the edge.” 

Notes to editors

IPC alert available here.

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz | Head of Communication, Media & Advocacy, Oxfam Aotearoa

Email: [email protected], Mobile: +64 (0)27 959 5555

Nearly 80 percent of millionaires think super-rich buy political influence

  • New poll of 3900 millionaires in G20 countries also finds six in ten think President Trump has had negative impact on global economic stability

  • Nearly 400 millionaires from 24 countries – including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Eno, and Abigail Disney – sign open letter to world leaders at Davos calling on them to tax the super-rich

As political leaders gather for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, millionaires from around the world say elected representatives must tackle the existential global crisis posed by extreme wealth, by taxing the super-rich.

Polling on behalf of Patriotic Millionaires has found that 77 percent of millionaires polled from G20 countries think extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence, with 71 percent believing that those with extreme amounts of wealth can use it to significantly influence election outcomes.

Donald Trump’s presidency was also critiqued by the millionaires: six in ten polled believe it has had both a negative impact on global economic stability, and a negative impact on affordability for everyday people. But while his presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the super-rich, this is not solely a U.S. phenomenon. The danger of extreme wealth is undermining societies worldwide

The polling also found:

  • 82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

  • 62 percent think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

  • Six in ten think that extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

  • 69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

  • Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis, with 65 percent supporting higher taxes on the super-rich

The survey comes as nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries, including Mark Ruffalo, Brian Cox, Brian Eno and Abigail Disney, have signed an open letter, Time To Win. It calls on global leaders attending the conference in Davos to win back our futures by taxing the super-rich.

The letter, coordinated by Patriotic Millionaires, Millionaires for Humanity and Oxfam International, states: “When even millionaires, like us, recognise that extreme wealth has cost everyone else everything else, there can be no doubt that society is dangerously teetering off the edge of a precipice. We are worn out watching this happen. We want our democracies back. We want our communities back. We want our future back.”

Mark Ruffalo, award-winning American actor and director, said: “Americans are confronted with the challenge of a lawless president who believes that the only limit to his power is his own morality and mind. But Donald Trump and the unique threat that he poses to American democracy did not come about overnight. Extreme wealth inequality enabled his every step, and is the root cause of the trend towards authoritarianism we’re witnessing in the U.S. and around the world. If leaders at Davos are serious about the threat to democracy and the rule of law, they must get serious about combatting extreme wealth concentration. That includes taxing wealthy people like me too. If we are to have democracy, not oligarchy, taxing the rich is essential to giving power back to the people.”

New figures from Oxfam International show just how vast the public to private wealth transfer has been over the last 50 years. The richest 1% now own three times more wealth than the world’s total public wealth. In 1975 the gap between public and private wealth was around $36 trillion, by 2024 the difference was $435 trillion and if this growth continues on the same trajectory, by 2075, private wealth will have surged ahead of public wealth by almost $900 trillion.

Public wealth includes assets owned by society, like public land and parks, hospitals, schools, road networks, barracks, social housing and law courts.

Brian Eno, musician, artist and member of Patriotic Millionaires UK, said: “It is impossible to ignore the brutal levels of economic inequality people are living with, and it’s only getting worse. Over the past few years we have felt the full force of extreme wealth stripping us of our political power, our economic security, and the public wealth we share as a country. The super- rich have been winning for long enough, now it’s time for everyone else to win. We want our security back, our communities back, the wealth of our countries back – and we want our democracies back. It’s time to tax the super-rich.”

Claire Trottier, philanthropist, business owner and chair of the Board of Patriotic Millionaires Canada, said: “It should be obvious to anyone, no matter how wealthy, that extreme wealth inequality is destabilizing democracies, economies, and societies around the world. You don’t need a crystal ball. It’s happening right now, and governments need to act with urgency before it’s too late. Taxation is the best tool the government has to constrain dangerous levels of wealth inequality, but as it stands, the tax code is only helping to make things worse.”

Amitabh Behar, Oxfam International Executive Director said: “Last year the rise in billionaire wealth was unprecedented. The super-rich are being given complete free rein, it is beyond comprehension that the richest 1% now own three times more than the world’s total public wealth combined. It’s a stark indictment that illustrates just how nonsensical the gulf now is between oligarchs and the rest of humanity. Governments must implement taxes on the super-rich now and prioritize reducing inequality, the world cannot continue on this obscene trajectory.”

Ends

Notes to editor

Time to Win letter and full list of signatories

Summary of G20 millionaires survey on attitudes towards extreme wealth – 3,900 people with more than $1 million in assets, excluding their homes, were surveyed by Survation between December 2025 and January 2026 across G20 countries.

Key results of polling conducted by Survation

●      62 percent of millionaires polled think that extreme wealth is a threat to democracy

●      81 percent of millionaires polled think extremely wealthy individuals can access politicians via their wealth

●      77 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals buy political influence

●      82 percent think there should be a limit to how much money politicians and political parties can receive from individuals

●      61 percent think our political leaders should do more to tackle extreme wealth

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth is harmful to democracy, factual media and social trust

●      6 in ten think extreme wealth prevents ordinary people from living a decent life and is damaging social trust

●      65 percent support higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      Only 17 percent oppose higher taxes on the very richest to invest in public services and tackle the cost of living crisis

●      71 percent think that extremely wealthy individuals can use their wealth to  significantly influence election outcomes

●      69 percent think the influence of the superrich over politicians is preventing action on tackling inequality

●      Six in ten think that Donald Trump has had a negative impact both on global economic stability and on affordability for everyday people

Contact information:

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

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to highest peak ever, sparking dangerous political inequality says Oxfam

Billionaires 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people

Billionaire wealth jumped by over 16 per cent in 2025, three times faster than the past five-year average, to $18.3 trillion – its highest level in history, according to a new Oxfam report today as the World Economic Forum opens in Davos.

Billionaire wealth has increased by 81 per cent since 2020. This comes as one in four people don’t regularly have enough to eat and nearly half the world’s population live in poverty.

The report “Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Defending Freedom Against Billionaire Power” analyses how the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of our economies and societies for their own gain and to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of people around the world.

The surge in billionaire wealth coincides with the US Trump administration pursuing a pro-billionaire agenda. It has slashed taxes for the super-rich, undermined global efforts to tax large corporations, reversed attempts to address monopoly power and contributed to the growth of AI-related stocks that have provided a boon to super-rich investors world-wide.

His presidency has sent a clear warning sign to the rest of the world about the power of the ultra-rich. Rather than solely a US phenomenon Oxfam’s paper demonstrates that rising oligarchy is undermining societies worldwide. Oxfam’s report finds:

  • The collective wealth of billionaires last year surged by $2.5 trillion, almost equivalent to the total wealth held by the bottom half of humanity – 4.1 billion people.

  • The number of billionaires topped 3,000 last year for the first time, while the richest, Elon Musk, became the first ever to surpass half a trillion dollars.

  • Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.

  • The $2.5 trillion rise in billionaires’ wealth would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.

New Zealand has four people with over a billion US dollars of wealth. These four billionaires together own more wealth than a third of New Zealanders, over 1.8 million people combined. At the same time, more than 900,000 people in Aotearoa suffer from food insecurity, over 17% of the population.  

“It’s obscene to see such a massive accumulation of wealth by so few individuals, while nearly a million people in Aotearoa can’t afford enough to eat” said Nick Henry, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Advocacy and Policy Lead.

“No-one should be going hungry in a society that produces so much wealth. We need our political leaders to stand up to the billionaires and multi-millionaires and say we’re going to tax this extreme wealth so that every Kiwi family can have a decent quality of life.”

“The widening gap between the rich and the rest is at the same time creating a political deficit that is highly dangerous and unsustainable.” said Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar.

Oxfam estimates that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary citizens. A World Values Survey of 66 countries found that almost half of all people polled say that the rich often buy elections in their country.

“Governments are making wrong choices to pander to the elite and defend wealth while repressing people’s rights and anger at how so many of their lives are becoming unaffordable and unbearable,” Behar said.

Billions of people are being left facing avoidable hardships of poverty, hunger and death from preventable diseases because the system is rigged against them. Worldwide one in four people face food insecurity, having to regularly skip meals.

The rate of poverty reduction has stagnated with levels broadly where they were in 2019. Extreme poverty is rising again in Africa. Political decisions made by governments across the world last year to slash aid budgets have directly hit people living in poverty and could lead to more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030.

Civil liberties and political rights are being rolled back and suppressed; 2024 was the nineteenth successive year of decline with a quarter of all countries curtailing freedoms of expression. Last year there were more than 142 significant anti-government protests across 68 countries which authorities typically met with violence.

“Being economically poor creates hunger. Being politically poor creates anger.” said Behar.

The chances of democratic backsliding through, for example, the erosion of the rule of law or the undermining of elections is seven times more likely in highly unequal countries. “No country can afford to be complacent. The pace that economic and political inequality can hasten the erosion of people’s rights and safety can be frighteningly fast,” he said.

Governments are allowing the super-rich to dominate media and social media companies. Billionaires own more than half the world’s largest media companies and all the main social media companies.

The report cites Jeff Bezos’ purchase of the Washington Post, Elon Musk with Twitter/X, Patrick Soon-Shiong with the Los Angeles Times and a billionaire consortium buying large shares of The Economist. In France, far-right billionaire Vincent Bolloré now controls CNews, rebranding it as the French equivalent of Fox News. In the UK, three-quarters of newspaper circulation is controlled by four super-rich families.  

The report cites evidence that only 27% of top editors globally are female and just 23% belong to racialized groups respectively. This has seen their voices marginalized, while minorities like immigrants and people of colour are often stigmatized and scapegoated and critics silenced.

Authorities in Kenya have used X to track, punish and even abduct and torture government critics. A study by the University of California meanwhile found that in the months following Elon Musk’s acquisition of X the rates of hate speech increased by about 500 per cent.

“Our societies feel more toxic today because they demonstrably are, but not always for the reasons we’re being told. The outsized influence that the super-rich have over our politicians, economies and media has deepened inequality and led us far off track on tackling poverty. Governments should be listening to the needs of the people on things like quality healthcare, action on climate change and tax fairness,” Behar said.

Oxfam is calling on governments to prioritise:

  • Realistic and time-bound National Inequality Reduction Plans, with well-established benchmarks and regular monitoring of progress.

  • Effectively taxing the super-rich to reduce their power, including with broad-base taxes on income and wealth at high enough rates to reduce massive levels of inequality.

  • Stronger firewalls between wealth and politics including by tougher regulations against lobbying and campaign financing by the rich, ensuring more media independence, and banning hate speech.

  • Accountability for the political empowerment of ordinary citizens, including stronger protection for people’s freedoms of association, assembly and expression and for civil society organisations and trade unions.

Ends

Notes to Editor:

Contact information:

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

Harry Stanbridge, Oxfam Aotearoa: [email protected]

Richest 1% Blow Carbon Budget in 10 Days, says Oxfam

The richest 1% have exhausted their annual carbon budget – the amount of CO2 that can be emitted while staying within 1.5 degrees of warming – only ten days into the year, according to new analysis from Oxfam. The richest 0.1% already used up their carbon limit on the 3rd January.

This day – named by Oxfam as ‘Pollutocrat Day’ – highlights how the super-rich are disproportionately responsible for driving the climate crisis.

The emissions of the richest 1% generated in one year alone will cause an estimated 1.3 million heat-related deaths by the end of the century. Decades of overconsumption of emissions by the world’s super-rich are also causing significant economic damage to low and lower-middle income countries, which could add up to $44 trillion by 2050.

To stay within the 1.5 degrees limit, the richest 1% would have to slash their emissions by 97% by 2030. Meanwhile, those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis – including communities in poorer and climate-vulnerable countries, Indigenous groups, women and girls – will be the worst impacted.

“Time and time again, the research shows that governments have a very clear and simple route to drastically slash carbon emissions and tackle inequality: by targeting the richest polluters. By cracking down on the gross carbon recklessness of the super-rich, global leaders have an opportunity to put the world back on track for climate targets and unlock net benefits for people and the planet,” said Oxfam’s Climate Policy Lead Nafkote Dabi.

On top of their lifestyle emissions, the super-rich are also investing in the most polluting industries. Oxfam’s research finds that each billionaire carries, on average, an investment portfolio in companies that will produce 1.9 million tonnes of CO2 a year, further locking the world into climate breakdown.

The wealthiest individuals and corporations also hold disproportionate power and influence. The number of lobbyists from fossil fuel companies attending the recent COP summit in Brazil, for example, was more than any delegation apart from the host nation, with 1600 attendees.

“The immense power and wealth of super-rich individuals and corporations have also allowed them to wield unjust influence over policymaking and water down climate negotiations,” Nafkote Dabi added.

Oxfam calls on governments to slash the emissions of the super-rich and make rich polluters pay through:

• Increase taxes on income and wealth of the super-rich and proactively support and engage on the negotiations for the UN Convention of International Tax Cooperation to deliver a fairer global architecture.

• Excess profit taxes on fossil fuel corporations. A Rich Polluter Profits Tax on 585 oil, gas and coal companies could raise up to US $400 billion in its first year, equivalent to the cost of climate damages in the Global South.

• Ban or punitively tax carbon-intensive luxury items like super-yachts and private jets. The carbon footprint of a super-rich European, accumulated from nearly a week of using super yachts and private jets, matches the lifetime carbon footprint of someone in the world’s poorest 1 percent.

• Build an equal economic system that puts people and planet first by rejecting dominant neoliberal economics and moving towards an economy based on sustainability and equality.

ENDS

Notes to editors

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2024, the median estimate of emissions level in 2030 consistent with limiting global heating to around 1.5°C is 24 GtCO2e (range: 20–26), which is equivalent to approximately 17.8 GtCO2 based on the 2019 share of CO2 emissions in greenhouse gas emissions (74.1 per cent).

According to the UN, the global population is projected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030. Dividing the 1.5°C compatible 2030 emissions level (17.8 GtCO2) equally by 8.5 billion gives an estimate of an annual carbon budget of 2.1t CO2 per person.

Oxfam’s latest research into climate and inequality, using data from the Stockholm Environment Institute, finds that the richest 1% emit 75.1 tonnes per person per year (using 2023 data, the latest available data), or 0.206 tonnes per person per day, which means that 10.2 days of emissions is enough to use the 2.1t CO2 budget.

Further information about carbon budgets and the data behind Oxfam’s research can be found within this methodology note.

The latest Oxfam report, “Climate Plunder: How a powerful few are locking the world into disaster”, presents new data which finds that a person from the richest 0.1% produces more carbon pollution in a day than the poorest 50% emit all year. If everyone emitted like the richest 0.1%, the carbon budget would be used up in less than 3 weeks.

Oxfam’s latest briefing paper, How to increase taxes on fossil fuel profits – Oxfam Policy & Practice proposes a Rich Polluter Profit Tax on fossil fuel corporations to help ensure renewable energy investments are always more profitable than fossil fuels. It also proposes an Excess Profit Tax on all other sectors to curb market concentration and accumulation of extreme wealth. These measures could raise over US$1 trillion in their first year.

According to Oxfam’s report, “A planet for the Richest 99%”, the emissions of the super-rich 1% in 2019 were enough to cause 1.3 million deaths due to heat.

Oxfam’s report, “Climate Inequality Kills”, found that the outsized consumption emissions of the world’s super-rich 1% over four decades (1990–2030) alone are causing significant net economic damage, with low- and lower-middle-income countries being most affected. Between 1990 and 2050, low- and lower-middle-income countries will accrue economic damage totalling $44 trillion.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world’s highest court, has confirmed that countries have a legal obligation to reduce emissions enough to protect the universal rights to life, food, health, and a clean environment.

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

How to Increase Taxes on Fossil Fuel Profits

Taxing excess profits, both in the fossil fuel industry and the overall corporate sector, is essential to restructure the economy to tackle climate breakdown, reduce inequality and make rich polluters pay. This briefing paper sets out Oxfam’s proposal for two taxes: a Rich Polluter Profit Tax (RPPT) on fossil fuel corporations, and an Excess Profit Tax (EPT) across all other sectors. An RPPT will ensure renewables are always more profitable than fossil fuel investments, and an EPT will reduce market concentration and the concentration of wealth, reducing inequality. Both can be implemented through existing corporate tax systems. Together, they could raise over US $1 trillion in their first year, which could fund vital investments for people and the planet. The paper explains how governments can design, administer and coordinate these taxes nationally and globally, to fund a just, gender responsive climate transition and fairer public finance.

View report here – How to Increase Taxes on Fossil Fuel Profits

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Millions stranded as conflict and aid cuts in South Sudan drive surge in suffering – Oxfam

Donors provided lowest aid funding ever in 2025, since country created in 2011 

Almost 6 million people – nearly half of the population – in South Sudan are experiencing acute hunger, with little access to clean water or sanitation as funding cuts have stripped away vital humanitarian support just as it is needed the most, Oxfam warned today. 

Massive reductions in funding from governments, including huge cuts across USAID (United States Agency of International Development), have forced humanitarian programmes to significantly scale down, while the number of people in need of support has soared. More than 2 million people are currently displaced due to conflict across the country and widespread flooding; with over a million people fleeing the civil war in neighbouring Sudan.   

This year, South Sudan has seen the least amount of funding ever provided by institutional donors since the country was created in 2011. With only a month of the year left, the country’s $1.7 billion emergency Humanitarian Need and Response Plan for 2025 is less than 41 per cent funded.  

In Renk, one of the country’s most densely populated and vulnerable towns where up to 1,000 people are arriving at transit centres every day, Oxfam is being forced to scale down its operations there by 70 per cent over the next month. Unless new funding is secured by February, Oxfam will have to shut down its operations there entirely.  

Shabnam Baloch, Oxfam’s South Sudan Country Director, said: “These aid cuts are catastrophic for the millions of people already grappling with extreme hunger and disease. We are now confronted with the heartbreaking reality of having to scale back our humanitarian response and in Renk, potentially have to close entirely in less than three months. It is as though the world is turning its back on those who need help the most, at the very moment when their survival hangs in the balance.”  

Many people who have fled the deadly conflict and hunger in Sudan are living in the border town of Renk, where communities are grappling with multiple health crises. Currently, there is only one clean water tap for every 433 people in one transit centre – almost half the accepted humanitarian standard. 

New cases of cholera, acute watery diarrhoea and Hepatitis E continue to be reported, with 450 (35 per cent) hospitals or health clinics either closed or severely disrupted.  

A recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report for South Sudan found that nearly 6 million people are experiencing acute hunger; this includes nearly 1.3 million people with very high acute malnutrition and an increased mortality rate. The report forecasts that these figures will worsen, reaching 7.5 million people in crisis by April next year. 

Oxfam warns there is a significant risk of many more being tipped into catastrophic levels of hunger as support continues to be removed. 

Maria, a returnee from Sudan said: “Few organizations are now operating, unlike before when there were many. Now there is poor sanitation and hygiene, many water taps no longer work. We fear for the fact we no longer see the help we had before. Households are now minimising the amount of water they use, and we could see a worse situation where there is little or no water at all. Yet water is life.” 

Oxfam is also concerned that the huge cuts to humanitarian assistance are directly translating into increased vulnerability and heightened protection risks for women and girls.   

Baloch said: “Desperate families will be forced to turn to harmful coping mechanisms if they are unable to get any support. Awful consequences, such as child marriage or sending women and girls to forage for resources in unsafe areas, where they risk exposure to sexual violence and exploitation. 

“We urge International donors not to forget what is happening in Sudan and the knock-on impact on South Sudan, where millions of vulnerable people could be left to starve or face a rapid spread in disease if the vital lifeline of aid is not urgently restored.” 

Notes to editor: 

UN OCHA’s Financial Tracking Service shows the Humanitarian Need and Response plan (HNRP) for South Sudan, with requirements and funding gaps each year since 2011 (Please see table below) 

The World Food Programme announced last week a near $400m funding shortfall for the next six months and the impact of cuts 

Oxfam is currently supporting 44,000 refugees and returnees in Renk with clean water, and sanitation services. Among them are more than 9,000 people residing in Transit Centre 2 (TC2), where water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions are already critically overstretched. UNHCR and IOM data shows the number of people arriving each day. 

The IPC analysis on South Sudan was published on 4 November 2025  

The humanitarian standard for the number of people per tap of clean water is generally set at a maximum of 250 people per tap. In the transit centres in Renk, there are just 30 functioning clean water taps for 13,000 people.

Table showing Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan vs Actual $USD funded each year

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]