Around five million people – or 47 percent of the population – are currently experiencing crisis or more severe levels of acute food insecurity (phase 3 and above).
Meanwhile, an additional 1.4 million people are trapped in the “emergency” phase, and this number is expected to rise as the year progresses.
“Families are being pushed beyond their capacity to adapt by the combined effects of economic collapse, climate shocks, disruption of livelihoods and declining humanitarian aid.“, said the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in a joint statement.
Hunger will get worse
The lean season, from June to September, is expected to bring the number of people facing emergency situations to 1.5 million.
Longer term, the post-harvest period from October to December 2026 is unlikely to bring any significant recovery, with the number of people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) expected to increase further to 1.8 million.
Food insecurity remains a leading cause of Yemen’s heavy malnutrition burden, after more than a decade of war between Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government.
Reduced dietary diversity, low household food consumption, limited access to essential preventive nutrition services and deteriorating living conditions increase the risk of acute malnutrition, particularly among pregnant and lactating women and young children.
Economic decline and aid cuts
Irregular wages, high food and fuel prices, reduced income opportunities, and constraints on agricultural production limit the ability of families to meet even their basic food needs.
Around 60 percent of Yemeni households depend at least partly on agricultureYet crops face increasing pressure from extreme weather, pest outbreaks and disrupted supply chains.
At the same time, humanitarian food assistance and humanitarian interventions in the areas of nutrition, health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) should sharp declineand because of critical funding gapsremoving support when it is needed most.
A young child undergoes a malnutrition test at a clinic in Yemen.
Mobile teams reach underserved areas
In this context, WHO, in coordination with its local partners in Aden and Marib, is providing health care directly to people living in IDP camps to address growing malaria risks.
In the Al-Shaab camp in Aden, where many displaced families live in difficult conditions, health problems are part of daily life.
Overcrowding, poor environmental conditions and limited access to services increase the risks of malaria and other vector-borne diseases, particularly among women and children.
For Abeer Abdulwarith Mohammed Saeed, 21, the challenges are all too familiar. “Sometimes at night a child suddenly has a fever, diarrhea or vomiting, and there are no emergency services available for us,” she said.
“If I, my husband or my children fall ill, we cannot seek treatment due to our limited means.“, she added.
“We are in good health”
The teams are implementing a strategy, through mobile clinics that move from camp to camp, to detect and diagnose cases early, particularly in areas far from health services.
For Ms. Saeed and her family, the visit from the mobile team was reassuring.
“The medical team helped us today by carrying out malaria and dengue tests for me and my children,” she said. “We waited for the results and, thank God, there was no malaria. We are healthy.”
Urgent funding is needed
The main UN humanitarian agencies involved are calling on the international community to urgently increase funding for humanitarian food aid, nutrition services, health, agriculture and resilience programs.
Without immediate, sustained and larger-scale action, millions of vulnerable people risk falling further into hunger, malnutrition and irreversible loss of livelihoods.
