UN try to seek $2 bn for starving Yemeni population
The UN on Wednesday appealed for US$2.1 billion (Dh7.7bn) to provide food and other life-saving assistance to 12 million people in Yemen who face the threat of famine after two years of war.
"The situation in Yemen is catastrophic and rapidly deteriorating," Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said in the appeal document.
"Nearly 3.3 million people — including 2.1 million children — are acutely malnourished."
In all, nearly 19 million Yemenis — more than two-thirds of the population — need assistance and protection, the UN said.
"The Yemeni economy is being wilfully destroyed," it added, saying that ports, roads, bridges, factories and markets have been hit.
An estimated 63,000 Yemeni children died last year of preventable causes often linked to malnutrition, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) said last week.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia entered Yemen’s civil war in March 2015 to try to reinstate President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi after he was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the tribal Houthis, who are fighting in an alliance with troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
