Contributions from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), announced on Thursday, will go towards relief projects in six African countries and Yemen.
Lifesaver
This money will enable United Nations agencies and their partners to provide vital support, including food, cash, nutritional assistance, health services, shelter and clean water.
Projects will also be tailored to help women and girls, who face additional risks due to the crisis.
“Hundreds of thousands of children will go to sleep hungry every night while their parents are worried about how to feed them. Martin Griffiths, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Make the situation worse
CERF funding will support humanitarian operations, with $30 million for the Horn of Africa, divided among Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Another $20 million will go to Yemen, while Sudan will receive the same amount. South Sudan will be allocated $15 million, and so will Nigeria.
Food insecurity in these countries is mainly due to armed conflict, drought and economic instability, and the Ukraine conflict is making the situation worse.
The war began on February 24 and disrupted food and energy markets, sending food and fuel prices soaring.
Earlier this month, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that global food prices were at “New all-time high”reached levels not seen since 1990.
Millions of hungry people
Humanitarians measure food insecurity using a five-point scale known as the Integrated Staged Classification (IPC).
Stage 5 is a situation where “starvation, death, exhaustion and extreme acute malnutrition are evident”. Famine is declared when hunger and death rates pass certain thresholds.
About 161,000 people in Yemen are expected to face a Category 5 disaster by mid-year, according to the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs, OCHA.
In South Sudan, 55,000 people may have experienced it, while another 81,000 in Somalia could face the same if the rain fails, prices continue to rise and aid does not expand.
© UNICEF / Anwar Al-Haj
Children are checked for malnutrition at a clinic in Yemen.
Global emergency
Meanwhile, approximately 4.5 million people across Sudan, Nigeria and Kenya have, or will soon, face acute hunger – IPC Phase 4. CERF funding will also accelerate the response in Ethiopia , amid the worst drought in recent history.
UN Secretary General António Guterres warned this week that the Ukraine conflict has caused a “systemic and global emergency” across the food, energy and financial sectors.
The crisis threatens to push an estimated 1.7 billion people globally, or more than a fifth of the planet – into poverty, destitute and hunger.
Mr. Guterres spoke in the launch of a new United Nations report which outlines measures to limit impacts, such as increased aid and fertilizer supplies, debt forgiveness, and the release of strategic food and fuel reserves.
About CERF
CERF was established in 2005 to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance whenever and wherever a crisis arose.
This fund brings together contributions from many donors, with more than 130 United Nations Member States, observers, others, including private individuals, providing more than $8 billion. over the years.
Over the past six months, CERF has allocated more than $170 million to address growing food insecurity in several countries, including those that will receive new funding.
