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May 12, 2020 The paralysis of the United Nations Security Council and the sale of weapons continued non-stop all over the world, even towards the areas of conflict, are making the request for a "global ceasefire", made last March since United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and supported according to the latest official data from 59 countries, including Italy. Last Friday, for example, the US refused to sign a Security Council resolution that was going precisely in this direction.

Oxfam's report "Coronavirus in conflict areas" denounces a dramatic situation, which is definitively compromising the possibility of containing the coronavirus pandemic in all those countries currently in conflict, in which it is worth remembering that about 2 billion people are trapped. people, exhausted by violence, persecution and famine.

Men, women and children who have to deal with dilapidated health systems and destroyed hospitals, while millions are in refugee camps, where it is even more difficult to contain the infection, due to the lack of adequate sanitation and the necessary living space to maintain the rules of social distancing.

From Yemen, to Myanmar, Colombia, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and South Sudan, the most serious situations where people continue to die from the war.

For this Oxfam launches an urgent appeal to all countries, which are continuing to export weapons destined to reach conflict areas to immediately stop all sales and exports. By working in reverse to put pressure on the parties to the conflict to accept a global ceasefire, which will lead to lasting peace.

With the petition launched today Oxfam asks the Italian government, after joining the appeal launched by the UN secretary Antonio Guterres, to make a further and decisive effort for the present and future of tens of millions of people. In particular, that: it undertakes to increase the number of states participating in a global ceasefire; suspend all arms sales and transfers to parties to the conflict who are not joining the ceasefire; increase financial commitment to support the United Nations Global Humanitarian Response Plan.

You can sign the Oxfam petition on https://www.oxfamitalia.org/cessate-fuoco-globale/