World

United Nations appeals for record $22.2 billion global aid

The United Nations appealed Monday for a record $22.2 billion (20.9 billion euros) to provide aid in 2017 to surging numbers of people hit by conflicts and disasters around the world.

It’s “the highest amount we have ever requested,” UN humanitarian aid chief Stephen O’Brien told a press conference.
“This is the reflection of a state of human needs in the world not witnessed since the Second World War,” he said.He added that more than 80 percent of the needs stem from man-made conflicts “many of which are now protracted and push up demand for relief year after year.”

The global appeal by UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations aims to gather funds to help the 92.8 million most vulnerable of the nearly 129 million people expected to require assistance across 33 countries next year.
The numbers are staggering, especially when considering that three war-ravaged countries — Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan — alone account for about a third of all of those in need.

The amount appealed for tops the USD 20.1 billion requested last December for 2016 — a year when “humanitarian actors have saved, protected and supported more people than in any previous year since the founding of the United Nations,” O’Brien said.

Globally, “humanitarian needs continue to rise and humanitarian efforts are hampered by reduced access, growing disrespect for human rights and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law,” O’Brien said.

The report highlighted “severely constrained” humanitarian access in places like Syria, Yemen, Iraq and South Sudan, which is “leaving affected people without basic services and protection.”

“Mines, explosives, remnants of war and improvised explosive devices impede humanitarian access and threaten the lives of vulnerable populations in conflict-affected regions,” it said.

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