Unlike anything we have seen in this century: WFP emergency director

The humanitarian disaster in Gaza is reminiscent of last century's famines in Ethiopia and Nigeria's Biafra region, which jointly claimed over two million lives, the UN food agency World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday. 

"This is unlike anything we have seen in this century," WFP emergency director Ross Smith told AFP in Geneva.

"It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century," he said, speaking from Rome.

Ethiopia's 1983-84 famine killed more than one million people, and the famine resulting from the 1967-1970 Biafra war also contributed to over a million deaths.

Earlier, global hunger watchdog Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that famine is already unfolding across the Gaza Strip as conditions deteriorate. 

"Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths," the IPC said. 

While the IPC has not formally declared a famine, it confirmed it would begin an immediate assessment.

The IPC, a UN-backed group of organisations used as a monitor to gauge malnutrition, said "immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access into Gaza was needed to stop more "starvation and death". 

Israel has imposed a near-total blockade of aid, leading to starvation that has killed 147 Palestinians, including 88 children. Local officials say 40,000 infants are at risk of imminent death as a formula shortage threatens babies in Gaza. 

Israeli forces have killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and wounded 145,870 others since 7 October 2025, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza has said.