5 more years of Yemen war will cost $29bn aid – relief group

An international relief group has said another five years of fighting in Yemen will cost as much as $29 billion just to sustain the current level of humanitarian aid – more than the entire annual global humanitarian budget.

The International Rescue Committee said in a report on Monday that with the current rate of aid, it will take 20 years to return Yemen to pre-conflict levels of child hunger.

The IRC says Yemen has the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with 24 million Yemenis, or 80 percent of the population, needing humanitarian aid and 16 million living on the verge of famine.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with the internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthi rebels in the country since 2015.