Local Editor
An annual watchlist of countries most likely to face humanitarian catastrophes listed Yemen as number one for the second year in a row.
The International Rescue Committee last week warned Yemen's devastating war could see the country plunge into a darker abyss, noting another five years of the conflict could cost £22 billion.
Yemenis living in the country, which has suffered from nearly five years of war, are expected to require humanitarian assistance in 2020, analysis by the group said.
"2019 was a devastating year for civilians caught in crisis worldwide," said IRC president and CEO David Miliband.
"Across the globe, the scale of need in 2020 is … likely to stretch resources beyond their limit. It's vital that we do not abandon these countries when they need us most, and that governments around the world step up funding to these anticipated crises before more lives are lost – and the bill for humanitarian catastrophe rises."
"But to truly address these challenges, it is vital that the international community, led by the UN Security Council members, take long-term approaches, re-engage their diplomatic muscle to prevent and resolve conflict and reinvigorate their support of international humanitarian law and accountability for those who violate it.
"Otherwise, the consequences of these humanitarian crises – massive displacement, women and girls at risk of violence, widespread hunger, demolished health systems, a lost generation of children with no chance of education – offer no hope of abating."
Yemen's conflict began in 2014 when the Houthi revolutionaries ousted the regime of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi after it retracted its resignation.
The war escalated months later in March 2015 after a Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign against the country to forcefully reinstate the resigned Hadi regime. It imposed a brutal bombing campaign that has since left thousands of civilians dead.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
