Oxfam said 2 billion people who live in fragile conflict-affected states are now put at heightened risk due to the pandemic.
A Yemeni child looks on as he waits for the arrival of his relative of Houthi detainees after they were released by Saudi Arabia, outside Sanaa Airport in Sanaa, Yemen, Nov. 28, 2019. Photo by Yahya Arhab/EPA-EFE
May 12 (UPI) -- Efforts by the international community to create a global cease-fire amid the coronavirus pandemic have been "a catastrophic failure," Oxfam International said Tuesday, calling out the U.N. Security Council for not doing enough to broker a resolution.
In a report published Tuesday, the international charitable organization said fighting continues across war-torn countries, undermining global efforts to combat the coronavirus, which has infected more than 4.1 million people and caused more than 280,000 deaths worldwide.
The report comes nearly two months after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' appeal for a global cease-fire.
The cease-fire remains unattained due to the U.N. Security Council's "diplomatic failure" to collectively broker a resolution amid the deadlock, it said, and its absence is exasperated by years of weak investment in peace-building and countries continuing to sell weapons for use in war-torn regions.
"We expect leadership from the council as well as many of those countries who say they support a cease-fire, but who nevertheless remain active participants in conflicts around the world conducting military operations, selling arms and supporting third parties," Oxfam Interim Executive Director Jose Maria Vera said in a statement.
On Friday, the United States effectively blocked a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution for a global cease-fire by refusing to vote -- a move that Oxfam says is emblematic of the council's failure to unite to address the global health crisis.
However, the vote, it said, is only the latest in a plethora of failures that fuel conflict and keep weapons in combatants' hands, which "completely undermine" the world's ability to respond to the virus.
The report highlights nationalism as a cause of this diplomatic failure, stating the pandemic is presenting the world with an era-defining choice of either turning inward or embracing the global community.
"We must use the global cease-fire call as a window of opportunity to address the root causes that continue to drive conflict and inequality and to hold states accountable for their actions (or lack thereof)," the report said.
The organization said some 2 billion people live in fragile conflict-affected states who are now put at heightened risk due to the pandemic. The violence has trapped them in regions with devastated healthcare infrastructure and those who flee are escaping to crowded refugee camps that are conducive to the spread of COVID-19.
The report also states the $1.9 trillion in military spending last year could have paid the United Nation's appeal 280 times over. Last week, the United Nations tripled its humanitarian aid ask from $2 billion to $6.7 billion to help the poorest nations fight the coronavirus.
It cited France and Canada selling arms to Saudi Arabia and Germany recently authorizing the sale of a submarine to Egypt as evidence of the weapons industry continuing amid the pandemic.
"Arms-exporting countries must stop fuelling conflict and instead make every effort to pressure warring parties to agree to a global cease-fire and invest in peace efforts that can bring a meaningful end to conflict," Vera said.
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