A United Nations donors conference for Yemen has raised about $2.6bn of the $4bn needed to address the humanitarian crisis in the country, where about 80,000 children below the age of five have already died of hunger, UN officials said on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were the main donors, pledging $500m each and contributing to a 30-percent increase in total pledges from last year.
But the two Gulf countries, backed by the United States and the United Kingdom, are also active participants in the ongoing conflict, which has caused what the UN describes as the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.
Since 2015, a Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen to reinstall the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The Houthis have seized control of the capital Sanaa, the Hodeidah port and most of the northeastern part of the country.
The war has caused a humanitarian emergency of catastrophic proportions, according to the UN, due to the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law by both parties. Nevertheless, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday praised the Gulf countries’ contributions and abstained from any criticism of their actions, despite requests from the media to clarify the contradiction in their positions as donors – as well as parties in the conflict.
“This is a pledging conference and any contribution is welcome despite a country’s role in the war,” he said. Asked to comment on the ongoing UN investigations on war crimes allegedly committed by all parties in the conflict, Guterres said they would continue as expected. About 24 million people, 80 percent of the population, need humanitarian aid and protection, UN officials said at the conference. About 20 million people have no access to food, out of which about 10 million Yemenis are just one step away from famine, according to UN figures.
Since last year, due to the continued fighting and the dire economy, an additional two million people became engulfed in Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. Children have borne the brunt of the conflict. About 80,000 children below the age of five have already died of starvation, according to Guterres, who was quoting from a report.
Eight children a day are killed as they go about their daily activities or other conflict-related causes, according to UNICEF, the UN’s agency for child protections.
About 360,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition with life-threatening consequences.
According to Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, a child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen of a preventable disease because of the lack of essential health services. More than two million children are not able to go to school. “Today Yemen is the worst place on earth for a child,” Cappelaere told Al Jazeera. “I invite the parties to think of their own children when they sit at the negotiating table next time.”
Addressing the media on Monday, Guterres admitted that the humanitarian response was not enough to address the Yemeni crisis without the parties’ serious engagement in the peace negotiations.
“There cannot be a humanitarian solution to humanitarian problems,” he said.
The UN chief admitted that the implementation of the agreement reached between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in December had met “obstacles”.
The UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement signed in December 2018 and Security Council resolution 2451 endorsing that agreement, called for a ceasefire in the Hodeidah governorate and a mechanism for exchanging prisoners, among other confidence-building measures. However, little progress has been achieved since the parties met in Sweden, each accusing the other of not abiding by the agreement.
Source: Al-Jazeera
Friday, April 17, 2026
