UN appeals for $702 million aid for Yemen

SANAA - The United Nations humanitarian envoy in Yemen appealed to the international community to provide $702 million in aid of some seven million people affected by conflict and instability in Yemen.

It was part of a "revised response humanitarian financial plan in Yemen for 2013, of which only 38 percent was received", Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the UN representative in Sanaa, was quoted Tuesday by Yemen's official Saba news agency as saying.

Ahmed said the sources will be used for providing food, clean water, health care and other vital services to 7.7 million of the most vulnerable Yemenis, adding that the unrest and instability have led to a near-collapse of most basic services, and forced hundreds of thousands of Yemenis to flee their homes.

About a half of the population in the country are in poverty, he said.

The impoverished Arab country has been combating enormous challenges since 2012 when a two-year transitional coalition government assumed power following a year-long mass protests that forced former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.