In April, donors pledged more than $1 billion in aid to finance humanitarian efforts in Yemen. The United Nations, Sweden and Switzerland organized the High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen, which sought to raise funds to finance the response plan of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The event, held April 25 in Geneva, took place after more than two years of civil war in Yemen — one of the poorest countries in the Middle East, if not the poorest — and a military intervention led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. According to UN estimates from April, some 19 million Yemenis need emergency support, and about 7 million of them are severely food insecure, a situation that qualifies as the world’s worst man-made famine at the moment.

The pledging event in Geneva coincided with the second wave of a cholera outbreak, the first outbreak having occurred in October. With more than 40,000 suspected cases in just four weeks, it is obvious that aid is needed now more than ever to help Yemenis survive the most brutal war in their modern history. It remains unclear whether the pledged aid will actually benefit Yemenis in need or whether it will fall into the wrong hands.

Given the extremely chaotic environment, expecting implementation of a fully transparent aid delivery process would be overly optimistic. The current political and military situations point to bleak prospects for aid deliverability in the war-torn nation.