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Global appeal for $2.2bn to help 85 million people in emergencies
24.02.2014 09:28 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) —
A global appeal has been launched by the UN Childrens Agency (UNICEF) for $2.2 billion to help 85 million people facing conflict and natural disasters in 50 countries, UN Radio reports.
Almost 40 per cent of the appeal is for Syria and the region where as UNICEF says humanitarian and development aid is urgently needed.
UNICEFs crisis appeal for 2.2 billion USD is the largest on record, exceeding its most recent call in October for 1.7 billion dollars.
Almost 40 per cent of the money is to tackle the impact of Syrias civil war. Children make up a major proportion of the millions of Syrians who have had to flee their homes.
All told UNICEF wants to provide humanitarian aid to 59 million children in 50 war and disaster stricken countries this year, as well as 26 million adults.
The head of emergency operations, Ted Chaiban has just returned from South Sudan where fighting broke out between government and rebel forces in December.
«The rain is coming in 6 to 8 weeks and the whole place becomes swamped and if you don’t move now to pre-position the supplies, strengthen the services, have the resources in place to be able to address the issues like malaria, diarrhoeal diseases, and the risk of cholera, then we could be facing the catastrophe in 45 to 60 days,» Ted Chaiban admits.
The agency says many other countries not in the headlines such as Colombia, Somalia and Yemen are also in urgent need of funding and humanitarian aid.
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