UN appeals for $4.3bn to help war-torn Yemen
The United Nations (UN) said it needed $4.3 billion this year to help more than 17 million people in war-ravaged Yemen, ahead of a donors’ conference on Monday.
The Saudi-led coalition’s siege has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula into one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies, AFP wrote.
Yemen is also at the forefront of the climate crisis, with severe drought and flooding threatening lives, the UN said.
It acknowledged that “record global humanitarian needs are stretching donor support like never before”.
“But without sustained support for the aid operation in Yemen, the lives of millions of Yemenis will hang in the balance, and efforts to end the conflict once and for all will become even more challenging,” it said in a statement.
UN chief Antonio Guterres, who will attend Monday’s donor conference in Geneva, said the international community had “the power and the means to end this crisis”.
“And it begins by funding our appeal fully and committing to disbursing funds quickly,” he said in the statement.
Last year, the UN raised more than $2.2 billion to enable aid agencies to reach nearly 11 million people across the country every month.