Protracted conflicts and disasters have left a record 141 million people in need of humanitarian help, the UN’s Emergency Relief chief said on Wednesday.

On the opening day of an aid conference in Geneva, Stephen O’Brien said that funding requirements in the last six months had grown to US $ 23.5 billion, with eight million more vulnerable people now than at the start of the year.

Jens Laerke from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told Daniel Johnson that half-way through the year the search for funds was “as dire as ever” despite support from Member States.

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