(Geneva, 17 July 2013) Seventy-three million people around the world need humanitarian assistance this year, said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos today in Geneva as she presented the mid-year review of global humanitarian action.
“Halfway through the year donors have generously provided US$5.1 billion for humanitarian organizations to deliver critical aid to people in 24 countries,” noted Valerie Amos. “For example, in South Sudan the money has been used to provide nearly 450,000 people with safe drinking water while in Mali, nutrition agencies have been able to treat around 77,000 children suffering from life-threatening or acute malnutrition.”
The deteriorating situation in Syria and neighbouring countries has recently added US$4.4 billion to the original amount needed to help people coping with the world’s major crises. People in Central African Republic, Niger, Afghanistan, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, and Chad, among many others, need help feeding their families, treating malnourished children, and getting safe drinking water and other essential supplies.
While the situation has become much worse in some countries, the review also shows that the scale and severity of needs in others, such as Kenya, South Sudan and Mauritania have eased a little, so funding plans have also been revised accordingly.
Some 620 humanitarian aid organizations – NGOs and UN agencies – are using the consolidated appeals to plan their response to crises and monitor the situation and impact of their work.
“This is an extraordinary year. We need US$13 billion if we are to help 73 million people. That’s an extra $8.6 billion to raise by the end of the year. Millions of people are in desperate need. We need to support them,” said USG Amos.
For further information, please call:
Amanda Pitt, OCHA New York, pitta@un.org , Tel +1 212 963 4129, Cell +1 917 442 1810
Vanessa Huguenin, OCHA Geneva, huguenin@un.org, Tel. +41 22 917 1891, Cell +41 79 444 4065