HispanicBusiness

The United Nations on Wednesday said $7.7 billion in aid is needed to help people suffering from armed conflicts and natural disasters around the world.

U.N. Humanitarian Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos said the situation in Horn of Africa countries Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia continued to be the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

The global appeal would have been 500 million dollars lower than last year were it not for Somalia, where the population has been badly affected by the civil war and a drought, officials said.

Amos said the so-called Arab Spring countries experiencing political upheavals generally do not face humanitarian crises, except Yemen, where a food and health crisis was starting to emerge, in addition to widespread internal displacement.

The other countries covered by the aid appeal were Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Niger, the Palestinian territories, Philippines, South Sudan, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.