Geneva, Switzerland
Reuters
The United Nations appealed for $US4.2 billion from donors on Monday to support war-ravaged communities in Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees in 2024, as war rages nearly two years on from Russia’s invasion.
“Please do not forget Ukraine while there are many other places in the world that grab our attention,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths urged diplomats in Geneva.
A local resident removes debris at the site where a residential building was destroyed during a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine, on 29th December, 2023. PICTUrE: Reuters/Nina Liashonok
WHO APPEALS FOR $1.5 BILLION TO ADDRESS CRISES FROM GAZA TO AFGHANISTAN
The World Health Organization on Monday appealed for $US1.5 billion in funding to respond to the health needs of millions of people caught up in dozens of humanitarian crises around the globe, from Ukraine and Gaza to Afghanistan.
“We aim to reach some 87 million people with life-saving humanitarian assistance this year,” said WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“To do this, we need support totalling $US1.5 billion, and we need this funding to arrive as early as possible and with as much flexibility as possible…A reactive approach is not enough.”
Tedros said an estimated 166 million people would require health assistance around the world this year, including in the occupied Palestinian territories, Ukraine, Haiti and Sudan.
The health emergency requiring the most is taking place in the occupied Palestinian Territories – and Gaza in particular – where Israeli forces have carried out a relentless assault against the enclave in response to a deadly rampage by Hamas gunmen in southern Israel on 7th October.
WHO said it required $US219 million to meet critical needs there for a period of three to six months, depending on the evolution of the conflict.
The other two global health emergencies requiring the most funding are COVID and the situation in Afghanistan, where 23.7 million people urgently need access to clean water and sanitation, WHO said.
The resurgence of cholera around the globe, which Tedros said was “especially concerning”, requires funding of nearly $US50 million, while WHO’s health response in Ukraine needs $US77 million.
“The cost of inaction is one the world cannot afford,” Tedros said.
– GABRIELLE TÉTRAULT-FARBER. Geneva, Switzerland/Reuters
As part of the appeal for funding, OCHA is asking for $US3.1 billion to help 8.5 million people in dire need of humanitarian aid in 2024. The UN refugee agency is seeking $US1.1 billion to support 2.3 million Ukrainian refugees and their host communities.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs received 67 per cent of the $US3.9 billion it appealed for last year. It has reduced its appeal for 2024 to prioritise the people most in need as other humanitarian crises around the globe, including in Gaza and Sudan, require urgent funding.
“We are deliberately reducing the amount of money we are asking for – not because we think the needs are diminishing or the war is getting any better for the people of Ukraine – but because we need to prioritise,” Griffiths said.
“We understand well that we are up in a severe competition with other parts of the world, the brutal truth of the competition of aid programmes with each other.”
OCHA said more than 14.6 million people, or 40 per cent of Ukraine’s population, will need humanitarian assistance this year due to Russia’s invasion and attacks.
More than 3.3 million of the people in need live in front-line communities in the east and the south of the country, including in territories occupied by Russia, which OCHA humanitarian convoys have been unable to access since the start of the conflict.
“We continue to remain in negotiation with the Russian government about how to get access to those people who are perhaps in the most urgent of need, since it has now been two years since any real, effective, regular, reliable humanitarian aid has reached them,” Griffiths told reporters.
Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022, has forced some 6.3 million people to flee abroad. Four million people, including nearly one million children, remain displaced within the country, according to OCHA.
“Let us not forget. I’m very worried that two years into this crisis, we already have to say this,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
“We had to say, until recently, ‘don’t forget other crises’ because everybody was focusing on this one. This volatility is a killer, literally.”
