UN: $4.4bn Needed to Prevent 'Catastrophe' of Famine


UN: $4.4bn Needed to Prevent 'Catastrophe' of Famine

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The United Nations needs $4.4bn by the end of next month to prevent "a catastrophe" of hunger and famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, according to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

More than 20 million people face starvation in the four countries and action is needed now to avert a humanitarian disaster, Guterres told a news conference at UN headquarters on Wednesday.

"We need $4.4 billion by the end of March to avert a catastrophe," he said.

So far, the UN has raised just $90m.

South Sudan on Monday declared a famine in northern Unity State while Fews Net, the famine early warning system, has said that some remote areas of northeast Nigeria are already affected by starvation since late last year.

The four famine alerts are unprecedented in recent decades, according to Al Jazeera.

There has only been one famine since 2000, in Somalia. At least 260,000 people died in that disaster - half of them children under the age of five, according to the UN World Food Program.

The UN children's agency UNICEF this week said almost 1.4 million children acutely malnourished in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen could die from famine in the coming months.

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