UN says record $51.5B needed to help 230M in 2023

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ISTANBUL (AA) – A record $51.5 billion is needed to help 230 million vulnerable people in 2023, the UN said on Thursday.

The number is 25% higher compared to 2022 and it reflects that the total number of people in need is 65 million more than this year, it also said.

Needs are "shockingly high," Martin Griffiths, the UN's top emergency relief official, said during his speech at the launch of the Global Humanitarian Overview Report 2023. He said this year's emergencies would "very likely" to continue into 2023.

Griffiths said the needs are going up due to the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate.

"I fear that 2023 is going to be an acceleration of all those trends, and that's why we say … that we hope 2023 will be a year of solidarity, just as 2022 has been a year of suffering," he said.

In 2023, 45 million people in 37 countries risk starvation, according to the report.

The UN-led Global Humanitarian appeal is only 47% funded in 2022, Griffiths said, as it is a sharp drop from usual funding levels of 60-65%.