Three out of four households in parts of Yemen are going hungry as renewed fighting displaces thousands and cuts off food supplies, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
About 74% of families in accessible government-held areas cannot meet their basic food needs, the highest level recorded there this year. An estimated 10 million people live in those areas.
The worsening Yemen food crisis reflects the country’s dependence on imports, with about 90% of food brought in from abroad. Disrupted markets and shrinking access for aid agencies are deepening the shortages.
Matthew Hollingworth, the WFP’s assistant executive director for programme operations, said the latest escalation “threatens to be absolutely devastating” for food security.
“We are looking at a hunger crisis that is going to grow as it persists,” he told reporters in Geneva by video link from Rome.
Fighting has intensified between Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-aligned Houthi group, which controls much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.
The Houthis seized Yemen’s Red Sea coast from the internationally recognised government last month. That government is based in the southern port city of Aden.
Families fleeing the fighting have been arriving outside Aden and around Taiz without food or water, having left their homes and possessions behind.
Funding gap threatens food aid
The WFP is expanding its operation to support up to 1.5 million people, but says it needs 109 million US dollars to do so.
The agency has already redirected resources from food distributions planned for November. Without additional funding, it warns that displaced and vulnerable people could face interruptions to assistance within a month.
Across Yemen, 18.3 million people are facing severe food insecurity, including 2.2 million children under five suffering acute malnutrition, according to the WFP.
The escalation is described as the most serious confrontation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis since a United Nations-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022.
The conflict could alter control of the country and cause further disruption to shipping through the Red Sea. Mr Hollingworth said disruption around the Houthi-controlled Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Gulf could also increase food and fuel prices worldwide.
The impact is already being felt beyond Yemen. More than 3,700 people fleeing the fighting had reached Djibouti via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait by late September, the WFP said.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 149,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen, many of them more than once.
