UN calls for $2.4 billion to support Yemen
English - Friday 29 May 2020 الساعة 08:51 pm
Aden, newsyemen
Mark Lucock, assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the United Nations, has appealed to the international community to provide up to $2.4 billion in aid to Yemen to help millions of Yemenis suffering from difficult living conditions as a result of the nearly five-year-old war, as well as the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Lucock hinted that aid programmes had been cut off from Yemen and that the catastrophic situation there was alarming, and said at a press conference that the United Nations had received only $516.6 million out of the $3.4 billion it needed to complete its operations by the end of the year, or about 15%.
The United Nations and Saudi Arabia are preparing to host a "virtual" conference on Tuesday (June 2nd) to raise the required amount, including $80 million to address the epidemic in Yemen.
Lucock and other UN officials and humanitarian organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) issued a joint statement, stressing that the Coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Yemen, which is already experiencing the world's largest humanitarian crisis, as a result of the war, and that the situation is getting worse.
"It is regrettable that we do not have enough money to continue our operations in Yemen," the statement said.
Some 30 of yemen's 41 UN programs will be closed in the coming weeks if they fail to secure support for their continued existence, and the signatories warned that the suspension of aid programs will result in many deaths, demanding that donor countries pay their pledges quickly.
