<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">The United Nations said it needed $4.3 billion this year to help millions of people in war-ravaged Yemen, ahead of a donors' conference on Monday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aid agencies need the money to help more than 17 million people in the country, which has been devastated by an eight-year civil war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The conflict has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula into one of the world's worst humanitarian tragedies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yemen is also at the forefront of the climate crisis, with severe drought and flooding threatening lives, the UN said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It acknowledged that "record global humanitarian needs are stretching donor support like never before".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"But without sustained support for the aid operation in Yemen, the lives of millions of Yemenis will hang in the balance, and efforts to end the conflict once and for all will become even more challenging," it said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened to back the government after the Huthis seized control of the capital Sanaa and large swathes of the country.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A truce that began on April 2 last year expired on October 2.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">UN chief Antonio Guterres, who will attend Monday's donor conference in Geneva, said the international community had "the power and the means to end this crisis".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"And it begins by funding our appeal fully and committing to disbursing funds quickly," he said in the statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last year, the UN raised more than $2.2 billion to enable aid agencies to reach nearly 11 million people across the country every month. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>