UK pledges additional £47 million for 11 countries, including Syria, Sudan

The British government has pledged £47million ($64,207,640) in emergency aid to nearly a dozen countries for 2021, the United Nations revealed.

Food, water and shelter for vulnerable families will be provided to 11 countries, including Syria and Sudan.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the funding would prevent crises across the world from turning into "widespread famine".

"This extra emergency UK aid will mean people can feed their families and prevent these crises from escalating into widespread famine. We hope to see other donors step up to the plate with some extra funding to prevent these global crises getting worse," said Raab.

An additional £8 million ($10,933,680) will support vulnerable Syrians, whilst the remaining funds will go to the UN World Food Programme (WFP).

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This comes as a welcome relief after WFP revealed a cut in funding, and UN data revealed that 235 million people are projected to require humanitarian assistance in 2021, compared to 175 million at the start of 2020.

The pandemic shows to intention of slowing down in 2021 and whilst countries across the world scramble to vaccination its population, poor countries risk leaving millions of children in potential famine.

According to a report published by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), nearly 10.4 million children are at risk of acute malnutrition and famine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, northeast Nigeria, the Central Sahel, South Sudan and Yemen.

The report says that, "all countries or regions experiencing dire humanitarian crises while also grappling with intensifying food insecurity, a deadly pandemic and, with the exception of the Central Sahel, a looming famine".

"The impacts of this pandemic will be felt for years to come, but it’s already clear that Covid-19 has exacerbated poverty and inequality in conflict-affected countries, adding massive pressure to already overwhelmed social and health systems," the report said.

Yemen is currently suffering one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world, with millions of civilians displaced as the country struggles under the weight of war and famine.