New York: The United Nations on Tuesday issued $125 million from its emergency relief fund to support humanitarian operations in 14 states across the world.
As per western media reports Afghanistan and Yemen top the list of beneficiaries, with each getting $20 million, while Burkina Faso and Myanmar at $9 million each and Mali, Haiti and Venezuela would get $8 million each.
The UN Central Emergency Relief Fund will also give $6.5 million to both Central African Republic and Mozambique, $6 million to both Cameroon and the Palestinian territories and $4 million to Malawi.
The fund will also provide $8 million to help refugee operations in Bangladesh and $6 million for refugees in Uganda.
Aid agencies facing shortage of funds
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has said it is a harsh reality that in many humanitarian operations, aid agencies are facing shortage of funds.
He said the Central Emergency Relief Fund is carrying out its humanitarian efforts with the support of donors urging individual donors to step forward as well.
This year, the UN has requested for more than $55 billion to support 250 million people affected by conflict, climate, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, displacement and other crises. But its appeal has received about $16 billion, less than 30 percent of the funds required.
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UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said millions of people will be without food this year unless donors give nearly $39 billion to meet the UN’s appeal.
He referred to Tuesday’s announcement from the UN World Food Program that it is being forced to cut the food assistance of an additional 2 million hungry people in Afghanistan because of scant funds.
The World Food Program has said that it can provide food to only 3 million people in coming months.
