UN, aid partners launch new appeal for Yemeni people

The humanitarian community in Yemen on Thursday launched an appeal for 1.8 billion U.S. dollars to provide life-saving assistance for 13.6 million people affected by an escalating conflict across the Middle East country, a UN spokesman told reporters here.

The 2016 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is a coordinated response of over 100 aid organizations to an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

In total, 21.2 million people, four out of five Yemenis, are in need of humanitarian assistance, he said. "Relentless conflict with increased attacks on essential civilian and economic infrastructure has pushed basic social services to a near collapse, the economy has ground to a halt and millions of families have lost their livelihoods."

In January, the humanitarian community provided regular monthly food rations to approximately 2.6 million people, direct water deliveries to more than 234,000 people, and supplied fuel to water pumping stations for more than 3 million people.

Health facilities reached more than 102,000 people, he added.

A deep divide between the warring parties in Yemen, following the collapse of a truce, is forestalling the next round of peace talks, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Yemen, told the UN Security Council here Wednesday as he depicted a tragic picture of the political situation in the country.

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has stated repeatedly, there is no military solution to this conflict, he said, stressing that a recommitment to a cessation of hostilities is the practical expression of this truth as it leads to a permanent ceasefire.

The latest UN reports said that more than 6,000 Yemenis have lost their lives since March 2015, and more than 35,000 others have been injured. Enditem