UN begs for financial 'aid' for Yemen
The United Nations has warned that three-quarters of the aid programmes backed by its agencies in war-ravaged Yemen will have to shutter in weeks without more funding, even as both COVID-19 and cholera continue to spread in the country facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Yemen's long-running conflict mainly pits Houthi rebels against a pro-government camp supported by a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The fighting has left some 24 million Yemenis - more than two-thirds of the population - to rely on some form of aid.
International donors pledged $1.35bn for Yemen at a conference on June 2 - but that was well below a $2.4bn fundraising target needed to prevent severe cutbacks in the UN's aid operation.
"More than 30 of the 41 UN-supported programmes in Yemen will close in the coming weeks if additional funds are not secured," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a briefing in Geneva.
"Now, more than ever, the country needs the outside world's help, and it's not really getting it," he said.
Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the US Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said only 47 percent of the promised $1.35bn had actually been received.
Source: Al jazeera
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