The UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency
Relief Coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, interacts with a woman and her
malnourished child on March 4, 2017, in a stabilisation centre in
Ganyiel, Panyijiar county, in South Sudan. Among major crises requiring
substantial funds include South Sudan, which has been wracked by civil
war since 2013. PHOTO | AFP
The United Nations appealed Friday for a record $22.5
billion (18.9 billion euros) to provide aid in 2018 to soaring numbers
of people slammed by conflicts and disasters around the world.
The
global appeal by UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations aims
to raise funds to help the some 91 million most vulnerable of the nearly
136 million people expected to need aid across 26 countries next year.
The
number of people in need of international assistance worldwide has thus
risen more than five per cent from last year's estimate.
"More
people than ever before will need our assistance," UN humanitarian
chief Mark Lowcock said in a statement launching the appeal.
Drought, floods and other weather-related catastrophes are expected to continue racking up humanitarian needs.
But Lowcock stressed that "conflict, in particular protracted crises, will continue to be the main driver of need in 2018."
One conflict clearly tops the charts in terms of humanitarian needs.
Staggering needs
A
full $7.66 billion is needed to address the staggering needs created by
Syria's brutal conflict alone — more than a third of the requested
amount of funds next year.
According to the appeal,
$3.5 billion is needed to provide humanitarian assistance inside the
war-ravaged country, where more than 340,000 people have been killed and
millions driven from their homes since March 2011.
Another
$4.16 billion is needed to address the towering needs of the 5.3
million Syrian refugees registered in neighbouring countries, as well as
of their over-burdened host communities, the appeal said.
War-torn
Yemen, which is facing the world's most dire humanitarian crisis, comes
next on the list, with Friday's appeal urging donors to cough up $2.5
billion to provide desperately needed assistance to the most vulnerable
people in the country.
That amount would meanwhile only
cover the needs of 10.8 million people — fewer than half of the 22.2
million in need of aid, the UN acknowledged.
Other
major crises requiring substantial funds include South Sudan, which has
been wracked by civil war since 2013, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria.
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On
a more positive note, the UN said that humanitarian needs in a number
of countries, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq and Ukraine had
declined some, although they still remained high.
At
the same time however, "substantial increases in needed are projected"
in places like Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic and
Libya, it warned.
The amount appealed for Friday marks a one-per cent hike over the $22.2 billion requested last December for 2017.
But there is little chance all the requested cash will materialise.
Last year, donors covered just over half of the appeal, dishing out only $13 billion for aid around the world.
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