Local Editor
An international charity said Tuesday pledges of donations for humanitarian work in Yemen fall short of what is needed to help the 80 per cent of the country’s population now in need of aid.
“While billions are spent on bombs and weapons bringing death and destruction, much less is made available to save lives of Yemeni civilians,” the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in a statement.
The pledges of donations reached $2.6 billion. That is a 30 percent increase on the amount pledged at a similar donors conference last year.
The United Nations has opened a third pledging conference in hopes of drumming up some $4 billion this year for Yemen.
U.N. officials say they are running out of money in a country also facing a devastated health care system, a lack of jobs, continued fighting and fallout from the world’s worst cholera epidemic in 2017.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who led the donations, are active participants in the conflict. They lead a Western-backed coalition that supports the resigned regime of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi against Yemen’s popular Houthis movement.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
