UN raises $1.2 bn to help millions in war-torn Yemen, as activists asking where previous funds gone

The United Nations raised around $1.2 billion on Monday to deliver aid this year to millions of people going hungry in war-ravaged Yemen, amid hopes that a fragile truce could foster a lasting peace.

The figure was far short of the $4.3 billion sought from donors at a pledging conference in Geneva, but the UN hoped the figure could reach $2 billion by the end of the week.

Since the start of the war in Yemen, about eight donor conferences have been held to finance the humanitarian response plans put forward by the United Nations and implemented through its humanitarian agencies, and they have been funded by more than twenty billion dollars. However, the fate of these funds remains a mystery known only to officials of relief agencies and groupers of corruption on both sides of the conflict.

Yemeni activists asking where previous funds gone.

"Cases of NGO corruption and those associated with them will be investigated and held accountable". Yemeni activist Dr Abdulqader Alkharraz said. "God willing, the corrupt rule will fall soon".

Yemeni activists launched a campaign on social media platforms and various outlets, in mid-2019, under the hashtag #WhereIsTheMoney. The campaign has received a wide response with the aim of knowing the fate of UN aid to Yemen during the years of war, and to demand the implementation of a transparent mechanism for aid delivery. The activists argued that food is not reaching the hungry, while aid is leaking into a black hole.

Activists published a list of 96 international, regional and local organizations, asking them to reveal the fate of the $2.7 billion that these organizations have received from donors since 2018.