International community urged to disburse pledged funds to help Yemen

"The international community has been urged to follow Saudi Arabia's example by releasing funds pledged to help Yemen address its growing humanitarian crisis and economic, social and security challenges," the Guardian reports. "Donors pledged more than $7.5 billion to Yemen last year, with Saudi Arabia's $3 billion commitment the largest by a distance," the newspaper notes. "The Saudi government has so far disbursed 93 percent of the pledged money," but "[o]ther donors have been slower to release funds, ... disbursing only $500 million to date," according to the newspaper.

Representatives from nearly 40 countries and organizations gathered in London on Thursday "to discuss Yemen and to assess progress on unfulfilled financial commitments," the Guardian writes. "More than 10 million people do not have enough to eat, and chronic malnutrition is widespread among children: one million children are acutely malnourished, with 250,000 at risk of death without immediate assistance," according to the newspaper (Roopanarine, 3/7).