Stephen O'Brien

The United Nations appealed Feb. 8 for $2.1 billion to provide desperately needed aid to millions of people in war-ravaged Yemen this year, warning the country could soon face famine.

"Two years of war have devastated Yemen and millions of children, women and men desperately need our help," warned U.N. humanitarian aid chief Stephen O'Brien in a statement, AFP reported.

Did it cross your mind occasionally, in the past week, to wonder where all of the "250,000 civilians trapped in eastern Aleppo" have gone? As the area of the city under rebel control dwindled - by Wednesday morning the Syrian regime's troops had recaptured three-quarters of it - did you see massive columns of fleeing civilians, or mounds of civilian dead?

The number of besieged Syrians has more than doubled over the past year to nearly one million, the United Nations aid chief told the Security Council on Nov. 21, as the United States named 13 Syrian military commanders it accused of killing civilians. 

The United Nations' humanitarian chief says that if the warring parties in Yemen do not reach a peace agreement soon, the country could collapse with menacing consequences for the entire region, while the U.N. envoy for Yemen said both parties in the conflict had rejected his peace plan but he would return back to try to clinch a peace deal in the coming weeks.

Russia said on Oct. 25 that Russian and Syrian military planes had not launched air strikes on Aleppo since Moscow said it was suspending bombing seven days ago, contradicting reports that air strikes in some areas of the city resumed on Oct. 22. 

Haiti faces a humanitarian crisis that requires a "massive response" from the international community, the United Nations chief said Oct. 10, with at least 1.4 million people needing emergency aid following last week's battering by Hurricane Matthew.

The United Nations suspended all humanitarian convoys in Syria on Sept. 20 following a deadly air strike on aid trucks, as fighting intensified after the regime declared an end to a week-long truce, even as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the "cease-fire was not dead."

The United Nations carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Feb. 24, U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien said, delivering 21 tons of relief to civilians besieged by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.

Saudi Arabia, which is leading air strikes against rebels in neighboring Yemen, has warned the United Nations and international aid groups to protect staff by removing them from areas held by Yemen's Houthi rebels, according to a letter that was seen by Reuters on Feb. 11. 

Aid trucks have reached three besieged towns in Syria, while negotiations to evacuate some 400 Syrians on the brink of death are being conducted. 

Aid workers found the 400 Syrians suffering from starvation, malnourishmnt and other illnesses during a visit to a hospital in Madaya, said U.N. Aid Chief Stephen O'Brien.