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Qatar Charity has launched a cochlear implant campaign for deaf children in Mauritania in co-operation with the country’s Ministry of Health. The initiative is one of four medical campaigns providing cochlear implants, treatment for heart defects, cataract surgery, and treatment for malnutrition.The launch was attended by Cheikh Baye Ould M’Khaitrate, secretary-general of Mauritania’s Ministry of Health; Hamoudi Cheikhna Ali, secretary-general of the Ministry of Social Action, Childhood and Family; Shaheen bin Ali al-Kaabi, Qatar’s ambassador to Mauritania; Ibrahim Abdulrahman al-Janahi, Qatar Charity’s director of development operations; and Omer Abdelaziz Mohamed, director of Qatar Charity’s Mauritania Branch.Ibrahim al-Janahi, Qatar Charity’s director of development operations, said the cochlear implant programme for deaf children in Mauritania is part of ongoing efforts under the organisation’s “27th Night Challenge” campaign, held last Ramadan to provide specialised healthcare for children and families most in need.He thanked the Mauritanian authorities, healthcare institutions, specialist medical teams, and all partners who helped make the program possible. Al-Janahi said a cochlear implant is more than a medical intervention. For a child, it opens a new window onto the world of sound, speech, learning, and communication. It also offers an opportunity to participate more fully in family, school, and community life and to approach the future with confidence and hope.Qatar’s ambassador to Mauritania, Shaheen bin Ali al-Kaabi, welcomed the launch of the programme, which aims to provide cochlear implants for 12 children. Qatar Charity is implementing the initiative in co-operation with the Specialties Hospital, with a specialist medical team sent specifically to perform the procedures.The ambassador said the close ties between Qatar and Mauritania continue to grow across a range of sectors. He highlighted healthcare co-operation as a strong example of this relationship, noting that such initiatives support human development and improve quality of life for those most in need. 

 Every day, Gazan mother Niyaha al-Masri spends six exhausting hours or more queueing at a community kitchen in the hope of getting some food for her family. It has been a year since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was supposed to allow food to flood into the ruined territory, yet widespread hunger persists there. Al-Masri has little choice. Without the kitchen run by humanitarian groups, she and her eight children would have “nothing at all”, the 35-year-old said. Each day she sets out early in the morning and returns in the afternoon, this time bringing four containers of rice, lentils and a little chicken, which the family throws itself at. Among them is her husband, wounded in both legs by an airstrike, meaning he “cannot go and fight with the others” to get food. This will be the only meal of the day for the family of 10, living in a tent in Khan Yunis. There was no breakfast and they will have no dinner. What little flour they have, al-Masri explained, has to be rationed. In August 2025, a United Nations-backed body, the IPC, declared a state of famine in Gaza, though Israel quickly denounced it as a lie. By December, the UN had lifted that declaration, saying that the ceasefire had allowed in enough supplies over the course of two months to ease conditions. COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry organisation responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was stable. But Shaun Hughes, of the UN’s World Food Programme, was less sanguine.  The food security situation, he said, “is still extremely serious”.  The most recent figures, from July, show that “1.4mn out of the population of about 2.1mn people are acutely food insecure”, he said, with 200,000 of them “just one step below famine”.While some food is getting in, a lack of sufficient nutritional variety continues to pose a health threat. “Dietary diversity is a major food security issue in Gaza,” said Hughes.  “You cannot survive on dry goods and wheat flour and bread alone. Particularly children, particularly pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, they need the micronutrients that come with high protein foods, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits,” he explained.  Al-Masri said that her children, aged between three and 14, “dream of eating fruit” but the family doesn’t have the means to buy any.  She said one of her sons suffered from malnutrition during the 2025 famine, although “little by little, his condition is improving”.  Malnutrition isn’t only caused by a lack of food, but also essential nutrients. It weakens the immune system of children, making them vulnerable to illnesses and stunting their growth.“Repeated bouts of acute malnutrition amongst children is something that human beings just don’t recover from,” said Hughes.  Cognitive and physical impairments “continue into later life”, he added.At Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital, the head of the malnutrition unit, Israa al-Najjar, told AFP she had “observed an increase in syndromes and conditions” linked to malnutrition that affect the immune system.  Medecins du Monde published a study that found 93% of pregnant or breastfeeding women had symptoms of anaemia, which is closely linked to malnutrition.Just 17% had a sufficiently varied diet to meet their nutritional needs, the group found.  All the while, al-Masri has kept visiting the community kitchen, despite asthma leaving her exhausted. Her children spend their days collecting “pieces of nylon, bits of cardboard and chunks of foam” to try and reinforce their tent, which is in a poor state.  She said it was “shameful” that her children had to do so.  “I swear to God, this isn’t normal.” 

Somalia faces a ‌severe malnutrition crisis ⁠and urgently ‌needs more aid funding to ‌avert a catastrophe, the UN World Food Programme said ⁠yesterday, warning it may be forced to halt humanitarian support from July without additional financing. A combination of multiple failed rain seasons, which have wiped out crops and livestock, and ongoing conflict and insecurity is pushing people in Somalia into dangerous levels of hunger at a time of ​radical cuts in foreign aid and aid shortages sparked by the war on Iran, the WFP said.Some 6 mn people in Somalia, ‌or almost one in ⁠three, are facing ​acute hunger, while 1.9 mn children are acutely malnourished, ​according to the WFP."Somalia faces a really severe malnutrition crisis and is one of the biggest malnutrition hotspots in the world," Matthew Hollingworth, WFP assistant executive director for programme operations, told reporters in Geneva. He spoke via video link from Rome. Somalia faces several overlapping conflicts, including a long-running Islamist insurgency by the Al-Shabaab militant group against the federal government as well as political disputes between Mogadishu ‌and regional states over ‌power and security.The situation in ⁠the country bears similar warning signs to 2022, when Somalia ⁠was on the ⁠brink of famine following a prolonged drought, but the difference this time is that aid agencies do not have the funding to respond at a massive scale, the WFP said.The agency, which manages 90% of the food security response to Somalia, has ​had to reduce the number of people it can reach to 500,000 from 2 mn, and could have to halt its services altogether by July due to funding cuts, Hollingworth added. The WFP and the wider humanitarian sector also face widespread shortages of life-saving aid, with Ready-to-use-Therapeutic-Food facing delays of up to 40 days, due to supply chain disruption sparked by ‌the war ​in the Middle East, Hollingworth said. 

A child died Tuesday from malnutrition and famine in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll from famine and malnutrition to 453, including 150 children. According to Palestinian medical sources, since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared famine in Gaza, 175 deaths have been recorded to date, including 35 children. Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are treating hundreds of people of all ages who are suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition, and are in a state of extreme stress. The medical sources noted that 17,000 children are suffering from severe malnutrition, and that patients are being treated for stress and memory loss resulting from severe hunger. Hospitals lack sufficient beds and medications for the massive number of people suffering from severe malnutrition. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five doubled between March and June as a result of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. UNRWA indicated that its health centers and medical points conducted approximately 74,000 malnutrition tests for children during this period, identifying approximately 5,500 cases of global acute malnutrition and more than 800 cases of severe acute malnutrition.

Gaza Strip hospitals recorded two deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. This brings the total number of deaths from famine and malnutrition to 422, including 145 children.Malnutrition and starvation cases are arriving at Gaza hospitals every moment, with 900,000 children in Gaza suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered the stage of malnutrition.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had previously warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five has doubled between March and June, as a result of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Seven Palestinians, including two children, have been martyred in the past 24 hours due to famine and malnutrition afflicting Gaza residents amid the genocide war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Strip since October 7, 2023. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza confirmed that the total number of victims of famine and malnutrition in the Strip has risen to 420 martyrs, including 145 children, noting that since the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared famine in the Gaza Strip on August 22, a total of 142 deaths have been recorded, including 30 children. Of note, the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen amid the blockade and shortage of food and medical supplies, as severe famine overlaps with the ongoing war that is nearing the beginning of its third year.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip recorded five deaths, including a child, due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported that the total number of deaths from famine and malnutrition has risen to 404, including 141 children.Since the IPC's announcement, 126 deaths have been recorded, including 26 children.Cases of malnutrition and famine keeps arriving at hospitals in Gaza continuously, as around 900,000 children are suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered a state of malnutrition.The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five has doubled between March and June as a result of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip recorded the death of six Palestinians, including two children, due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.This brings the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition to 393, including 140 children.Some 900,000 children in Gaza are suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered the malnutrition stage.UNRWA had warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five had doubled between March and June, as a result of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.