The UN migration agency (IOM) on Monday called for “urgent humanitarian access” to an overcrowded migrant detention centre in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, where a deadly fire reportedly led to multiple deaths at the facility at the weekend. 

The international response to Monday’s High-Level Pledging Event on Yemen has been described as “disappointing” by the UN chief, announcing that pledges totalled less than last year’s humanitarian response, and a billion dollars less than the figure raised in 2019.  

In Yemen, whose people are living through a long-running, brutal war, which has led to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, COVID-19 is far from being a top priority, says the top UN refugee agency (UNHCR) official in the Arabian Peninsula country.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, appealed on Friday for a de-escalation in hostilities in Marib Governorate in northern Yemen as Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah, attempt to seize the area from Government control.