GENEVA: Donor countries pledged millions of dollars to aid the population in war-ravaged Yemen on Tuesday in Geneva, after UN Chief Antonio Guterres had warned that the world’s largest hunger crisis could turn into a humanitarian catastrophe.
The minister-level pledging conference was convened in Geneva because only 15 per cent of the $2.1 billion needed to aid Yemen this year had been donated so far.
“We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation. We must act now to save lives,” Guterres said.
Several donors increased their previous pledges by millions of dollars. The United States announced that it would earmark another $94 million for a new total of $526 million, while the European Union will release another $123 million.
Germany increased its 2017 aid budget for Yemen to 50 million euros, 17 million euros more than its previous pledge.
The war that is now in its third year has left 17 million of the country’s 27 million people at risk of hunger.
On average, one child under the age of 5 dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian peninsula.
Even before the conflict escalated, Yemenis suffered.
“Fear, famine, poverty, cries of children (...) are not new,” Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid said.
Two years on, 18.8 million Yemenis need humanitarian aid.
A large part of the country’s infrastructure, including schools and health facilities have been destroyed by the war.
Less than 45 per cent of Yemen’s hospitals and clinics are fully functioning, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). — DPA
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