UN appeals for $51.5-B emergency fund
Some 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance next year
Daily TribuneSome 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance next year
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations appealed for record funds for aid next year, as the Ukraine war and other conflicts, climate emergencies and the still-simmering pandemic push more people into crisis, and some towards famine.
The UN's annual Global Humanitarian Overview estimated that 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance next year — a staggering 65 million more people than the estimate a year ago.
"It's a phenomenal number and it's a depressing number," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva, adding that it meant "next year is going to be the biggest humanitarian program" the world has ever seen.
If all the people in need of emergency assistance were in one country, it would be the third-largest nation in the world, after China and India, he said.
And the new estimate means that one in 23 people will need help in 2023, compared to one in 95 back in 2015.
As the extreme events seen in 2022 spill into 2023, Griffiths described the humanitarian needs as "shockingly high."
"Lethal droughts and floods are wreaking havoc in communities from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa," he said, also pointing to the war in Ukraine, which "has turned a part of Europe into a battlefield."
The global humanitarian plan will aim to provide $1.7 billion in cash assistance to 6.3 million people inside the war-torn Ukraine, and also $5.7 billion to help the millions of Ukrainians and their host communities in surrounding countries.
The UN pointed out that at least 222 million people across 53 countries were expected to face acute food insecurity by the end of this year, with 45 million of them facing the risk of starvation.
"Five countries already are experiencing what we call famine-like conditions, in which we can confidently, unhappily, say that people are dying as a result," Griffiths said.
Those countries — Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan — have seen portions of their populations face "catastrophic hunger" this year, but have not yet seen country-wide famines declared.
