Yemen on the brink
The United Nations and aid groups have warned of grave consequences for Yemen after an international pledging conference failed to raise enough money to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the war-torn country.
Overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine, aid-starved Yemen -- already suffering the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN -- is on the verge of total collapse.
With the country almost completely dependent on imports, aid groups say the situation will only worsen following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which produces nearly a third of Yemeni wheat supplies.
Some 80 percent of its around 30 million people depend on aid for survival, after seven years of a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, directly or indirectly.
The UN voiced disappointment after Wednesday's conference raised less than a third of the target to help 17.3 million of Yemen's needy.
It has repeatedly warned that aid agencies are running out of funds, forcing them to slash "life-saving" programmes.
The UN's World Food Programme has said the levels of hunger risk becoming catastrophic as the Ukraine crisis pushes up food prices.
Even before Russia invaded its neighbour, the WFP said Yemeni food rations were being reduced for eight million people this year, while another five million "at immediate risk of slipping into famine conditions" would remain on full rations.
"Clearly, pressing concerns over events in the Ukraine cast a shadow on (the pledging) event," Abeer Etefa, a WFP spokesperson for the Middle East and North Africa region, told AFP.
The UN was seeking $4.27 billion but raised only $1.3 billion, with some major donors going missing -- including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who were among the top three at last year's conference.
"If we act now, we can avert what could be a point of no return and we can save millions," Etefa said.
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