UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations and humanitarian partners launched on Sunday the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian response, which seeks $2.96 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 13.1 million people this year.

This is the largest consolidated humanitarian appeal for Yemen ever launched, a press statement said.

Three years of escalated conflict has turned Yemen into the worst man-made humanitarian crisis of our time. Three quarters of the population – 22.2 million people – need humanitarian assistance, including 11.3 million people in acute need who urgently require assistance to survive.

A generation of children is growing up in suffering and deprivation. Nearly two million children are out of school, 1.8 million children under the age of five are malnourished, including 400,000 who suffer from severe malnutrition and are 10 times more likely to die if they do not receive medical treatment.

“Humanitarian assistance is not the solution to the plight of the people of Yemen, but it is the only lifeline for millions of them,” said Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. “Today, humanitarian partners appeal to the international community to support this critical lifeline.”

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2018