UNICEF appeals to help millions of children in the Middle East and North Africa

NEW YORK — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently announced that more than 39 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, especially after the outbreak of the coronavirus.

To help combat the issue, UNICEF launched a funding appeal to raise $2.5 billion for assistance.

In its statement, UNICEF indicated that the amount includes an increase of about $ 500 million to continue the international response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The UNICEF statement noted that the largest share of this appeal will be for the crises in Yemen and Syria which have, collectively, resulted in the deaths of around half a million since 2011.

The situation in Sudan, which has been suffering from a severe economic and humanitarian crisis, made worse by the influx of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees due to the ongoing war in the north of the country.

According to UNICEF, 4.8 million Syrian children need assistance with 2.5 million currently living in refugee camps in neighboring countries. In Yemen, an estimated 12 million children need assistance, while in Sudan an estimated 5.3 million children face difficulties related to poverty.