The US, Canada and the UK among others have pledged large sums of money to assist countries facing severe food emergencies, but a gap exists between pledged aid and the amount of aid collected.
A report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated that South Sudan, Somalia, northeast Nigeria and Yemen need more than €5.4bn in humanitarian aid if they are to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe” affecting 20 million people.
At least €4.2bn of the requested €5.4bn is needed for immediate needs. At the time of the report, only 51% of €4.2bn had been received since the initial request in early spring.
The UN reported that the US, Canada and Australia have completed funding their pledges, but not all contributions from the UK and the EU have been received. The same report stated the US made contributions to the Central Emergency Response Fund as well, providing humanitarian aid to “scale up mitigation measures” specifically addressing famine, malnutrition and food insecurity in Africa and Yemen.
