$35bn needed for aid – UN

A RECORD 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance next year, a nearly 40% increase on 2020 which is “almost entirely from Covid-19”, a top UN official said yesterday.

In an appeal for $35 billion (R533bn) to meet humanitarian needs next year, under-secretarygeneral for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief co-ordinator Mark Lowcock said the global health crisis had resulted in people reeling from conflict, levels of displacement and climate change shocks, reports Xinhua news agency.

He added that “multiple” famines were looming.

This year’s Global Humanitarian Overview sets out plans “to reach 160 million of the most vulnerable people in 56 countries”, Lowcock said.

He noted that while richer countries had invested large amounts in staving off economic disaster from the Covid-induced slump and could now see “light at the end of the tunnel”, the situation in relatively poor countries remains precarious.

Lowcock said multiple” famines were looming, adding thatfunding was needed to “stave off famine, fight poverty, and keep children vaccinated and in school”. He also highlighted how climate change and rising global temperatures had further contributed to the bleak outlook for humanitarian needs in 2021 – humanitarian agencies have plenty of work to do in countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency appealed yesterday to Ethiopian authorities for access to 96 000 Eritrean refugees in the northern Tigray region, where it said food is believed to have run out during the month-long conflict.

Babar Baloch, spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told a Geneva news briefing: “Our extreme worry is that we hear about attacks, the fighting near the camps, we hear about abductions and forced removals, so this is very important for us to have that access to go and see what has happened over there.”