US, UNHCR special envoys agree to collaborate to ease humanitarian crisis in Yemen

By Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) - US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking and Hollywood actress and Special Envoy for the UNHCR Angelina Jolie agreed to work to ease the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

"The two Special Envoys agreed to work together to ease the humanitarian crisis & help end the #Yemen conflict," said a Twitter post on The US State Department - Near Eastern Affairs account.

"UNHCR Special Envoy Jolie & #USEnvoyYemen Lenderking met to share impressions from their separate trips to #Yemen. They expressed frustration that donors raised just 30% of funding needed for Yemen's humanitarian response & fear it'll have devastating impacts on the people," it added.

Lenderking and Jolie separately visited Yemen on March 6 - 8.

The UN, which planned to collect nearly $4.3 billion in aid to prevent the famine in Yemen, raised just $1.3 billion at a conference on Yemen, the UN said Wednesday.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The conflict has created one of the world's worst man-made humanitarian crises, with nearly 80% of the country, or about 30 million people, in need of humanitarian assistance and protection and more than 13 million are in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.