The catastrophic hunger crisis in the civil war country Yemen continues to worsen. According to recent UN data, there are now 20 million men, women and children – that is about two-thirds of the population – great difficulty in getting enough food.
240,000 people would be classified in the rating of the hunger crisis now in the highest category 5, said emergency response coordinator Mark Lowcock on Monday in New York.
For 2019, four billion dollars (3.5 billion euros) would be needed for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to ask the world community at a donors‘ conference in Geneva in February. This is twice as much as in 2017. Saudi Arabia, which leads a military alliance in Yemen in the fight against Houthi rebels, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have again pledged large donations, Lowcock said.
Lowcock did not comment on the attitude of the Saudis and the allied UAE to wage war in Yemen and at the same time provide humanitarian assistance to the population. „We thank all donors regularly,“ he said. Violence of all involved would also be regularly condemned. Without the donations, the situation in the country would undoubtedly be even worse, Lowcock said.
