Donors Countries Raise Less Than 1/3 Funds Needed To Combat Hunger in Yemen

A United Nations-organized conference held to raise money to ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen raised less than a third of the funds needed. The UN says that $4.3 billion is needed this year to prevent massive hunger in the war-torn country, in its seventh year of conflict against the Iran-backed Houthis, but it raised only $1.3 billion on Wednesday in Geneva. Thirty-six donor countries announced contributions to the effort; but, Saudi Arabia – which leads a coalition of seven countries in support of Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthi rebels, and the United Arab Emirates did not contribute to the effort, despite being large donors in the past. It has been suggested that the three-week-old conflict in Ukraine, which has led to millions of refugees and internally displaced persons in a short amount of time has overshadowed the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. An estimated 19 million people in Yemen are in need of food assistance, an increase from 17.4 million last year. Some 7.3 million of them will be facing emergency levels of hunger. There also is a high level of acute malnutrition among children under the age of 5, with 2.2 million children acutely malnourished, including more than half a million children facing severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. Only 60.9% of Yemen’s 2021 response plan, amounting to $3.9 billion, has been funded.