UN launches $29b emergency funding appeal

GENEVA: The UN launched a humanitarian appeal for nearly $29 billion on Wednesday as climate change and increasingly protracted conflicts put tens of millions of people in urgent need of aid. The world body´s Global Humanitarian Overview estimated that 168 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance in 2020, including food, shelter and healthcare. That figure marks a “record in the modern era,” UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock told reporters, clarifying that he was referring to the period since World War II. Needs continue to rise in part because “conflicts are becoming more protracted and intense,” Lowcock said. “Combatants display total disregard for humanitarian law,” with the result that civilians caught up in conflict are increasingly likely to be displaced or traumatised psychologically, he said.