In its annual appeal, the United Nations has sought for a record $51.5 billion aid to help vulnerable people across 68 countries over the next year.

As per the UN Global Humanitarian Overview's estimate, an additional 65 million people will need help next year compered to this one. This will bring the total to a staggering 339 million people worldwide.

"It's a phenomenal number and it's a depressing number," UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said, adding that it meant "next year is going to be the biggest humanitarian programme" the world has ever seen.

Explaining the enormity of the crisis, Griffiths said that if people in need of emergency assistance formed a separate country, it would be the third-largest nation in the world after China and India.

The ongoing Ukraine war, climate disasters and still-simmering COVID pandemic is continuing to wreak havoc worldwide.

"For people on the brink, this appeal is a lifeline," Griffiths said as he addressed the media in Geneva.

War, deadly 'famine-like' conditions, disease outbreaks

"There is no doubt that 2023 is going to perpetuate these on-steroids trends," Griffiths said as he cited the war in Ukraine and the drought in the Horn of Africa.

The report presented by the UN pointed out a range of disastrous conditions pushing millions of people into crises.

"Five countries already are experiencing what we call famine-like conditions, in which we can confidently, unhappily, say that people are dying as a result," Griffiths said.

 "Lethal droughts and floods are wreaking havoc in communities from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa," he said.

The US official pointed to the war in Ukraine, which "has turned a part of Europe into a battlefield."

"And all of this on top of the devastation left by the pandemic among the world's poorest," Griffiths said, while  also noting outbreaks of mpox, previously known as monkeypox, Ebola, cholera and other diseases.

Biggest UN deficit in history

For the year 2022, The UN had appealed for $41 billion which was later revised to $50 billion, however, less than half of the target amount was actually collected.

Based on the data collected through to mid-November, the United Nations faces its biggest funding deficit ever.

"Humanitarian organizations are therefore forced to decide who to target with the funds available," a UN statement said.

mf/dj (Reuters, AFP)