The UN appealed Wednesday (February 8th) for $2.1 billion to provide aid to millions of people in Yemen this year, warning the country could soon face famine, AFP reported.
"Two years of war have devastated Yemen and millions of children, women and men desperately need our help," warned UN humanitarian aid chief Stephen O'Brien in a statement.
The appeal from UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations aims to help some 12 million of the nearly 19 million people expected to need assistance across Yemen this year.
More than 10 million people need immediate, life-saving aid, including more than two million children who are acutely malnourished.
At the end of 2016, nearly half a million children under the age of 5 were suffering from life-threatening severe, acute malnutrition – a 57% increase over 2015, Wednesday's report said.
Last year, UN agencies and other partners provided aid to 5.6 million people in Yemen. This year, they hope to more than double that number.
