United Nations (TDI): More than 17 million people in Yemen are struggling with hunger, including over one million children under the age of five who are facing “life-threatening acute malnutrition,” the United Nations has warned.
Briefing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher painted a grim picture of the situation in the war-ravaged country, where food insecurity has worsened sharply since the end of 2023.
“If the current trend continues, more than 18 million Yemenis could be food insecure by September,” Fletcher said, adding that the number of severely malnourished children could rise to 1.2 million early next year. “Many of these children may suffer permanent physical and cognitive damage if urgent action isn’t taken.”
Experts from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an international standard for measuring hunger crises, report that over 17,000 Yemenis are now in the highest emergency levels of food insecurity.
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Fletcher said the current levels of deprivation are the worst the UN has seen since before the 2022 UN-brokered ceasefire. He also noted that the worsening crisis is happening at a time when global funding for humanitarian aid is rapidly declining. So far this year, only $222 million has been received out of the $2.5 billion needed for Yemen, leaving a huge shortfall.
Yemen has been locked in a brutal civil war since 2014, when Houthi rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led military coalition entered the conflict in 2015 to try to restore the government.
Over the past decade, the war has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure and economy, killed more than 150,000 people, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes.
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UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, also briefed the Security Council, highlighting a dangerous escalation in recent days. He pointed to two Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the first such incidents in more than seven months, and ongoing Israeli airstrikes on key areas, including Yemen’s capital and ports.
The Houthis have declared they will continue targeting vessels in the Red Sea until the conflict in Gaza ends, further threatening regional stability and international shipping routes.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
