UN seeks help for famine-hit Yemen, where a child dies every 10 minutes

GENEVA — The United Nations (UN) needs massive funds to avert famine in Yemen and warring parties there must ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday as he opened a donor conference in Geneva.

A UN appeal for $1.2 billion this year for Yemen, where Mr. Guterres said a child under the age of five dies of preventable causes every 10 minutes, is only 15% covered.

Two years of conflict between Houthi rebels aligned with Iran and a Westernbacked, Saudi-led coalition that carries out air strikes almost daily have killed at least 10,000 people in Yemen, and hunger and disease are rife there.

Nearly 19 million people or two-thirds of the population need emergency aid, Mr. Guterres said, renewing a call for peace talks and urging all parties to “facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid by air, sea and land.”

“We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation. We must act now to save lives,” he added.

“All infrastructure must remain open and operational.”

Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid Bin Daghr said his government, which controls only part of the country, would allow access for aid supplies. “We are ready to open new corridors for this aid,” he said.

Initial pledges announced at the conference included $150 million from Saudi Arabia, $100 million from Kuwait, €50 million ($54.39 million) from Germany and $94 million from the United States.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has committed $1 billion to Yemen and reached a record five million people last month with rations but needs to scale up deliveries to reach nine million who are deemed “severely food insecure,” its regional director Muhannad Hadi said in an interview.

They include some three million malnourished children. —