UN hosts aid-pledging conference for beleaguered Yemen

The UN secretary-general is appealing to dozens of countries to boost aid funds for war-torn Yemen, which is considered one of the world's greatest humanitarian crises and faces "the world's largest hunger crisis."
Antonio Guterres kicked off an aid conference in Geneva co-hosted with the Swiss and Swedish foreign ministers, aimed at better addressing a crisis that has been overshadowed by Syria's war and other Mideast conflicts.
"Our humanitarian appeal for 2017 is $2.1 billion and only 15 per cent has been met until the present moment," Guterres said in his opening remarks to the gathering in the Swiss city.

About 17 million people are food insecure, he said, "making this the world's largest hunger crisis."
Yemen's war has killed over 10,000 civilians and pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine. Aid groups want improved access to people in need, a halt to airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition that is fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels, and more respect for international law.
The war pits the coalition of mostly Arab Sunni countries against the Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital and some other areas in 2014 and forced its internationally-recognized government to flee.

Unlike the Syria war, Yemen's conflict has not produced a flood of refugees to neighboring countries making it a relatively contained crisis that has drawn fewer international headlines. Violence and administrative blockages have impeded the flow of aid and resources into the country.

One Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing discussions, said hopes were high that wealthy Gulf states some involved in the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen would step up with greater funding during Tuesday's gathering.
However, organizers insist that aid is a stopgap measure, and that ultimately Yemen's suffering will only end with a political solution to stop the war. They sought to highlight the magnitude of the catastrophe.
"On average, a child under the age of 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen every 10 minutes," Guterres said. "This means 50 children in Yemen will die during today's conference, and all of those deaths could have been prevented."

"We are witnessing the starving and the crippling of an entire generation," he added. "We must act now to save lives ... We are here today to turn the tide of suffering and create hope."
The United Nations' humanitarian aid coordination agency, OCHA, says some 18.8 million people need humanitarian or protection assistance in Yemen.