• OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and centre but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas

    I’m not a doctor or anything but based on the picture in the article alone isn’t “quite possibly” really underselling it?

    News: at least 20 people have already died from malnutrition

    US: Hmm yeah could be a famine there, not sure. Hard to tell.

    • livus@kbin.social
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      7 months ago

      “Famine” is a technical term with quite a high threshold:

      • At least 20 per cent of the population in that particular area are facing extreme levels of hunger;

      • 30 per cent of the children in the same place are wasted, or too thin for their height; and

      • The death – or mortality – rate has doubled, from the average, surpassing two deaths per 10,000 daily for adults and four deaths per 10,000 daily for children.

      Source: UN

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        You should check out the actual part of the UN responsible for declaring famines, the IPC. They use phases 1 through 5 to describe the severity of the situation. Northern Gaza is Stage 5 and Southern Gaza is Stage 4.

        The definition of their phases -

        Differentiation between different levels of severity of acute food insecurity, classifying units of analysis in five distinct phases: (1) Minimal/None, (2) Stressed, (3) Crisis, (4) Emergency, (5) Catastrophe/Famine.

        We are at Catastrophe. Famine is not a warning designation, it is when a lot of people start dying. The warnings have been coming for months. You do not wait until the IPC says, yup it’s a famine, to treat it seriously.

        • livus@kbin.social
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          7 months ago

          This. Humanitarian NGOs have been warning about this for months now. The crisis is happening right now.