UN hosts aid-pledging conference for beleaguered Yemen

FILE -- In this Jan. 24, 2016 file photo, a malnourished child lies in a bed waiting to receive treatment at a therapeutic feeding center in a hospital in Sanaa, Yemen. The U.N. secretary-general and high-ranking government officials from dozens of countries are meeting Tuesday, April 25, 2017, in Geneva to drum up funds for war-torn Yemen. The impoverished Mideast country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula is considered the world's greatest humanitarian crisis. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE -- In this Sept. 12, 2016 file photo, a Yemeni man offers prayers at the portrait adorned grave of his relative who was killed in the ongoing conflict in Yemen, in Sanaa, Yemen. The U.N. secretary-general and high-ranking government officials from dozens of countries are meeting Tuesday, April 25, 2017, in Geneva to drum up funds for war-torn Yemen. The impoverished Mideast country on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula is considered the world's greatest humanitarian crisis. Yemen's war has killed more than 10,000 civilians. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed, File) (The Associated Press)

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, left, talks with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after arriving at the high-level pledging event for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Tuesday April 25, 2017. (Valentin Flauraud/Keystone via AP) (The Associated Press)

The United Nations secretary-general and high-ranking government officials from dozens of countries are meeting to drum up funds for war-torn Yemen, considered the world's greatest humanitarian crisis.

Antonio Guterres and top diplomats from Switzerland and Sweden are co-hosting Tuesday's pledging conference in Geneva, aimed at helping assemble $2.1 billion in a U.N. relief appeal launched this year.

The U.N.'s humanitarian arm, OCHA, points to "an alarming 18.8 million people in need of humanitarian or protection assistance" in Yemen.

Yemen's war has killed more than 10,000 civilians and pushed the Arab world's poorest nation to the brink of famine.

Humanitarian aid groups have sought greater access to people in need, a halt to airstrikes by a Saudi-led, Western-backed coalition fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels, and greater respect for international humanitarian law.