DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A United Nations appeal Tuesday for countries to fund emergency aid in Yemen, where more than five years of war have collapsed the country’s health care system, raised $1.35 billion — a billion dollars short of what aid agencies needed.
The amount raised is also half of the $2.6 billion that countries pledged at the same conference last year. It is meant to cover Yemen’s needs through the next six months.
Aid agencies say Yemen is in dire need of assistance as the coronavirus threatens to decimate a health care system already ravaged by civil war.
Saudi Arabia, which co-hosted the UN pledging event, said it would pay half a billion dollars in aid for Yemen this year, $300 million of which will be funneled to