UN relief agency in cash crisis

The UN agency helping Palestinian refugees is facing a budget crisis and appealing for urgent funding of £88 million to keep education, healthcare and other services running.

“We keep struggling, running after cash,” the agency’s commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said.

“The financial situation is a real existential threat on the organisation, and we should not underestimate this because it might force the organisation to decrease services. We risk collapse very quickly”.

At stake is the agency’s ability to keep 550,000 children in school, provide health care for thousands, and pay salaries for its 28,000 staff in November and December, Lazzarini said.