UN calls for cash to fight famine in Yemen

Antonio Guterres says 2020 relief package is only half funded

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a news conference at UN headquarters in New York City. Reuters

The UN on Monday called for funds to fight famine in Yemen, where 16.2 million people could be at risk of starvation by the middle of next year.

In a message to mark the second anniversary of the peace initiative for Yemen, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres described a “severe economic crisis”, as the UN’s $3.38 billion relief package for 2020 was only half funded.

“Pockets of famine-like conditions have returned in Yemen and millions are facing severe, growing food insecurity, in particular against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mr Guterres said.

The UK and Sweden say that only a rapid $1bn cash boost could avert the hunger crisis in Yemen, where 16,500 people are enduring famine-like conditions and 13.5 million more do not have enough to eat.

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors on Monday to hear the UN aid chief discuss the famine.

On Sunday, the council issued a warning about the famine, calling for aid and "strongly condemned" an attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group on oil facilities in Jeddah on November 23.

On Monday, a booby-trapped boat struck a fuel tanker at Jeddah port in Saudi Arabia, reports said.

Mr Guterres's comments came two years after envoys from the Houthis and representatives from Yemen’s internationally recognised government agreed in Stockholm, Sweden, to prisoner swaps and truces in Taez and Hodeidah.

The deal has only partially held.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Houthi officials were so far sticking to a pledge to allow UN engineers access to a decaying oil tanker, with the repair mission set for the end of January.

Saudi Arabia led an Arab military intervention force in 2015 to restore the government of President Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, who had been driven from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis.