The world has got just three months to save millions of people in Yemen and Somalia from starvation, as drought and war wreak crops and block aid across the region, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday (March 22).
The agency said it needed $300 million to fund its work in those countries and other trouble spots in South Sudan and northeast Nigeria.
More than 20 million people are facing famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and northeast Nigeria, aid agencies have warned.
Cholera, which can be deadly for children, is on the rise in Somalia, while an average of 20 people in Yemen are dying each day from disease or war wounds, ICRC officials said.
The ICRC appealed for $400 million for its operations in the four countries this year, but has received only $100 million so far, it said.
The United Nations has appealed for about $5.6 billion, bringing total funding needs to $6 billion, Director of Operations of the ICRC Dominik Stillhart said.
(Reuters)
