UNICEF Faces $300 Million Funding Gap In Yemen - Executive Director

�WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd November, 2020) The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is facing a nearly $300-million funding gap in conflict-torn Yemen, UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore warned in a statement on Monday.

"Donors must step up and provide urgently needed additional funds. As we approach the end of the year, UNICEF's humanitarian appeal has received just US$237 million of the US$535 million required, a funding gap of almost US$300 million," Fore said.

Fore noted that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated an already dire situation in the country, where millions of children were already grappling with unrelenting conflict, severe malnutrition and a severe cholera outbreak.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has turned a deep crisis into an imminent catastrophe," Fore said.

Eighty percent of the 24 million people in Yemen are in need of assistance, according to the United Nations.

Yemen has been engulfed in an armed conflict between the government forces, led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, and the Houthi movement since 2014. In December 2018, the warring parties signed a UN-backed agreement in Sweden. The sides agreed to a ceasefire in Al Hudaydah, an exchange of prisoners and establishment of humanitarian corridors in the area. The prisoner swap process still continues, so do clashes, drone attacks and airstrikes in the conflict-hit country.