The United Nations on Wednesday cried poor and said it wants $47 billion in donor aid for 2025 as officials fear cuts from Western states in general and the U.S. in particular ahead of noted critic President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“The world is on fire,” the U.S.’s new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, acknowledging he was looking ahead to 2025 with “dread.”
His warning was an echo of the apocalyptic warnings to the world continually issued by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
The British career diplomat cited spiralling conflicts in places like Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine, alongside climate demands taking an ever-heavier toll, the U.N. estimated that 305 million people globally will need some form of emergency assistance next year, AFP reports.
“We are dealing with a poly-crisis right now globally, and it is the most vulnerable people in the world who are paying the price,” Fletcher said, warning a host of challenges had created a “perfect storm” of needs.
Launching the Global Humanitarian Overview, Fletcher acknowledged that the U.N. and its partners would not be able to reach all of those in need.
Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher holds the Global Humanitarian Overwiew 2025 report during a press conference in Geneva on December 3, 2024. (ELODIE LE MAOU/AFP via Getty Images)
As the U.N. calls for more money, it also faces the prospect of critic Trump’s return to high office and his past demands the organization be more responsible in how it disperses its donations.
He has long pushed for reform of the U.N. and in 2019 cautioned the “future does not belong to globalists” in a warning to the organization’s leaders.
Flashback: Donald Trump Warns U.N. ‘The Future Does Not Belong To Globalists, It Belongs To Patriots’
In December 2017 Nikki Haley, the then United States Ambassador to the organization, announced the federal government had reduced its contribution to the U.N.’s annual budget by $285 million, as Breitbart News reported.
Haley’s statement came after the U.N. voted to condemn Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The resolution, backed by nations with long records of extreme human rights abuses, passed 128-9. Haley immediately responded by threatening to reduce America’s U.N. funding.
A record 123 million people were living displaced from their homes due to conflict by mid-2024, while one in every five children globally living in or fleeing conflict zones, according to U.N. figures.
“The suffering behind the numbers is all the more unconscionable for being man-made,” Fletcher said.
“Wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine are marked by the ferocity and intensity of the killing, the complete disregard for international law, and the deliberate obstruction of our humanitarian movement’s effort to save lives.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.