GENEVA, June 19 (Saba) - The United Nations (UN) needs over $1.6 billion to face a looming catastrophe in Yemen.

As fighting intensified across Yemen, the country faced "a looming humanitarian catastrophe" with people across the country struggling to feed their families and basic services collapsing in all regions, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Stephen O'Brien, told delegates.

"Millions of families no longer have access to clean water, proper sanitation or basic healthcare," Mr. O'Brien said at the launch of the $1.6 billion appeal in Geneva earlier this morning.

"Deadly diseases such as dengue and malaria have broken out, and supplies for acute trauma care are running dangerously low."

He said the disregard for international humanitarian law by parties to the conflict has come with a high human toll. "There is also an urgent need for full resumption of commercial imports as reductions have crippled the country, putting millions at risk," O'Brien said.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which Mr. O'Brien heads, has noted that thousands of people in the country have been killed and injured by airstrikes and ground fighting in the last three months alone while over 1 million people have fled their homes. In addition, a staggering 80 per cent of the Yemeni population currently need humanitarian assistance.

OCHA's new appeal - a revision of its 2015 Humanitarian Response Plan - will seek to deliver essential protection and lifesaving assistance, including food, water and shelter, to Yemen's most vulnerable, or an estimated 11.7 million people.

The OCHA chief said that the plan alone is not enough to end the living nightmare faced by so many families in Yemen. "Only a political solution to the Yemen crisis can end the unacceptable and intolerable level of suffering."

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