WASHINGTON: International humanitarian aid groups pleaded for cash on Wednesday as the Middle East war creates new challenges for already depleted resources.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR estimates that 3.2 million people in Iran and 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced since the conflict began on Feb. 28.
In Lebanon alone it needs an additional $61 million to support 600,000 people over the next three months.The agency, which axed 30 percent of its staff last year because of funding cuts, issued an urgent appeal for donations.
“The drop in global humanitarian funding is having a major impact on humanitarian actors at the very moment as needs are rising sharply,” it said.
“These reductions mean we are operating with far fewer people and resources at a time when displacement is growing.
”The UN World Food Program, whose funding was cut by a third last year, warned that nearly 45 million more people could face acute hunger if the war did not end by the middle of the year and oil prices stayed above $100 a barrel.
“If this conflict continues, it will send shockwaves across the globe, and families who already cannot afford their next meal will be hit the hardest,” the program’s chief operating officer Carl Skau said.
“Without an adequately funded humanitarian response, it could spell catastrophe for millions already on the edge.”Aid workers have criticized the cost of the war, after the US spent $11.3 billion in the first week alone.
