UN raises $2bn in Yemen appeal
Geneva, Switzerland - The United Nations raised more than US$2bn on Tuesday to help civilians in Yemen, with half the funds pledged by governments that are bombarding the warravaged country.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the donor conference in Geneva as a ‘remarkable success’.
The target for the 2018 Yemen humanitarian appeal was set at US$2.96bn.
Guterres told reporters that in addition to the US$2bn already committed, multiple countries had promised more donations in the coming months, leaving him ‘optimistic that we will be able to reach the level that corresponds to the needs’.
Last year’s Yemen appeal for US$2.5bn, which was 73 per cent funded, but the needs have intensified in a country battered since 2015 by a Saudi-led military offensive aimed at repelling Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control the capital.
The UN has labelled Yemen ‘the world’s worst humanitarian crisis’ and said that three-quarters of its population - around 22mn people - need some form of aid.
Saudi Arabia and its coalition partner, the United Arab Emirates, were the largest donors at Tuesday’s conference, jointly pledging US$1bn in humanitarian relief, according to figures provided by the UN.
Asked if he saw a contradiction in the Saudi stance towards Yemen, Guterres said a coun- try’s humanitarian commitments and military actions should be kept separate.
Guterres underscored that the only way to ensure that Yemen donor conferences do not continue year after year is for the sides to negotiate a peace deal.
The UN’s Yemen envoy, Martin Griffiths, has recently visited Riyadh and Sanaa in hopes of revitalising sputtering peace talks.