Israel-Palestine, DR Congo, Gambia.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 19, 2024

Israel-Palestine

Everyone in Gaza - that’s 2.3 million people - is experiencing severe levels of “acute food insecurity," according to the UN. And some 70 percent of the population is facing “catastrophic hunger.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told BBC it is the first time an entire population has been classified as facing acute food insecurity. About 300,000 people are still trapped in northern Gaza, where the situation is at its worst, and some have resorted to eating animal feed. Al Jazeera today published a comprehensive explainer on the hunger crisis.

DR Congo

We’ve mentioned in Proximities several times that the deteriorating situation in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is one to watch closely. Now, the capital of the eastern province of North Kivu, Goma, has been “asphyxiated” as rebels surround it, according to the UN’s Angèle Dikongué-Atangana. Hundreds of thousands of people had already fled to the city as fighting between Congolese forces and the M23 militia, who DRC accuses neighboring Rwanda of backing, intensified. Goma’s numbers have swelled to almost two million and all of the main supply routes into the city are reported to be in the hands of the M23.

Gambia

Dispiriting news out of Gambia today. The country’s parliament has voted to advance a bill that would overturn a ban on female genital cutting. Gambia banned the practice in 2015 and, if the bill is successful, it would become the first country in the world to reverse such a ban. MPs in favor of the bill say the ban took away the right of Gambians to “practice their culture and religion.” But crowds of women and men opposed to the move protested outside the parliament as the vote took place, some holding signs that read: “Girls need love, not knives.”