Latest Oxfam Stories

NAIROBI -- Recent rains across drought-hit east Africa are a mixed blessing which may help crops and grazing, but will also block aid routes and harm weak animals further, British-based charity Oxfam said on Friday.Millions of people across the region are facing hunger and hardship due to a drought since late 2005 -- which Oxfam estimates will take 15 years to recover from -- but rain has been falling in some parts in the last few days."With the coming of the rains in certain areas, some...

By David Lewis KINSHASA (Reuters) - Congo's landmark elections must be open to all and run by the rules to ensure the results are accepted, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. The U.N. chief said a promise by European countries to send a force to help secure the polls, scheduled for June 18 and meant to end a decade of war and chaos, showed the international community was committed to the Democratic Republic of Congo. But in a reminder of the conflict simmering in much...

By Sophie Walker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British rock star Chris Martin leapt onto the Washington stage, driving screaming fans wild as he belted out one crowd-pleasing hit after another. As dazzling lights and glitter burst around the charismatic Coldplay frontman, captivated fans could have been forgiven for missing the "Make Trade Fair" logo inscribed on the singer's piano at the concert. But if the hundreds of signatures collected by Oxfam volunteers during the Washington show this...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations next week launches a new global emergency fund to provide swifter relief to victims of natural disasters, but with far less money on hand than the $500 million it had hoped to raise. The Central Emergency Response Fund will have just $188 million when it opens for business, which is nonetheless a significant improvement over an existing U.N. standby loan facility of $50 million. Donations to the new fund, which will be able to make grants...

By Andrew CawthorneNAIROBI -- Drought in Somalia is putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk, with some forced to drink their own urine or walk the equivalent of two marathon races to find water, a relief agency said on Thursday.With east Africa facing its worst drought for years, arid Somalia is one of the worst-affected countries, with pastoralist families forced to exist on a twentieth of the daily water supply recommended by minimum standards, Oxfam said."Many families are...

By Wangui Kanina NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya needs $221.5 million in aid to help feed 3.5 million people threatened by starvation due to drought and avoid a "massive humanitarian catastrophe," the government and the United Nations said on Wednesday. Kenya and U.N. aid agencies launched a joint appeal for urgent donor support as Oxfam warned the food crisis in east Africa's most developed country could become its worst in more than four decades. "Failure to quickly fund the Kenyan aid...

By Andrew Cawthorne NAIROBI (Reuters) - Drought and food shortages in north Kenya are provoking clashes between nomadic tribes, with dozens already killed and violence set to spread unless more relief reaches them, an aid agency warned on Monday. "The knock-on impact of the crisis risks sparking conflict on a scale that Kenya hasn't seen for almost a decade," said Gezahegn Kebede, head of Oxfam in Kenya. Kenya is one of the worst-affected countries from a drought afflicting east Africa...

By Suzanna Koster MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - The massive quake flattened Shazia Noreen's house and killed her daughter. Her life shattered, Noreen defied convention in Pakistan's male-dominated, Muslim society and went out to find work. Scraping together meager savings, she built a small corrugated-iron shop next to the tent where her family now lives. "It is our family tradition to keep women in the house, but I'm going to change that tradition," Noreen said with a grin....

By Robert Evans GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union nearly wrecked the World Trade Organisation's Hong Kong conference last week by pursuing their own interests at the expense of poor countries, Oxfam said on Wednesday. And unless the two trade powers change their ways in the coming months, the WTO's troubled Doha Round, due to end with a new global pact by the end of next year, could drag on into the next decade, the international aid body said. "The WTO Hong...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Monday urged the International Monetary Fund to erase the debts of 18 poor countries, as mandated by the Group of Eight nations, while aid groups warned the deal may be under threat. Six members of the House of Representatives Financial Services and International Relations panels, including Iowa Republican James Leach and California Democrat Maxine Waters, wrote to IMF Managing Director Rodrigo Rato urging the fund to cancel the debts "without...