Tunisia-Hend Sabri renounces title as UN goodwill ambassador

Sabry said: “I write this with a heavy heart and with great sadness, as I have decided to step down from my role as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations World Food Programme, a role that I cherish and have played for years.”

“I learned a lot… and I cried a lot with all of you throughout this journey, which will always remain in my heart. Thirteen years ago… I became part of the large family of the United Nations World Food Programme… I was part of a great and noble mission… and I am proud of that.”

“Over the past weeks, I have witnessed and shared the experiences of my dedicated colleagues at the World Food Programme in feeling helpless because they are unable to carry out their duty to the fullest, as they always do, towards the children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents in Gaza,” she said.

The Tunisian actress noted that “they could do little in the face of the crushing war machine that showed no mercy to civilians who are surrounded by death.”

She emphasised that she tried to make her voice heard at the highest level of the World Food Programme and to join her colleagues in demanding that the weight of the programme be used, as she had done successfully in the past, to call and push strongly for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and to benefit from the programme’s influence to prevent the use of starvation as a weapon of war.