NEW YORK: Saudi Arabia’s aid chief has issued an impassioned plea to transform “despair to hope” through humanitarian action amid mounting suffering in Gaza, Sudan and across the Middle East.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah was speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York during a Saudi-organized meeting attended by some of the world’s foremost humanitarian leaders.
The world is witnessing “unprecedented challenges such as conflicts, displacements, mass migration and human rights violations in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East and Africa,” he warned.
The prominent physician and surgeon, and head of Saudi aid agency KSrelief, was joined by representatives from the EU, the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“In Sudan and Gaza alone, more than 20 million people have been displaced, 60,000 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been injured, as well as 300 humanitarian workers killed,” he added.
