The United Nations has allocated $100 million to fight hunger in Africa and the Middle East as the spillover effects of the war in Ukraine threaten to push millions even closer to famine.
The contribution from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which was announced on Thursday, will go towards relief projects in six African countries and Yemen.
The money will enable UN agencies and their partners to provide critical support, including food, cash, nutritional help, medical services, shelter, and clean water.
“Hundreds of thousands of children are going to sleep hungry every night while their parents are worried sick about how to feed them. A war halfway around the world makes their prospects even worse. This allocation will save lives,” Martin Griffiths, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator said.
The CERF funding will support humanitarian operations, with $30 million for the Horn of Africa, divided between Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya.
Another $20 million will go to Yemen, while Sudan will also receive the same amount. South Sudan will be allocated $15 million, as will Nigeria.
Food insecurity in these countries is mainly being driven by armed conflict, drought and economic turmoil, and the Ukraine conflict is making a dire situation even worse.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week that the Ukraine conflict has triggered a “global and systemic emergency” across the food, energy and financial sectors.
The crisis risks pushing as many as 1.7 billion people globally, or more than one-fifth of the planet — into poverty, destitution, and hunger.
