Three in four families go hungry in parts of Yemen from new fighting – WFP

Three in four families in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the “absolutely devastating” impact of a surge in fighting, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions, the World Food Programme says.

Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi group since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks ​in 2022. The renewed ​conflict could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes.

Within just a few weeks, the fighting has driven the share of households without sufficient food to 74% in government-controlled areas accessible to WFP, the UN hunger body’s assistant executive director for program operations told reporters in Geneva. The total population of government-held areas is estimated at around 10 million people.

Prices of basic food staples such as wheat flour and vegetable oil are rising in a country that imports around 90% of its food.

“We are looking at a hunger crisis that is going to grow as it persists,” Hollingworth said, adding that frontline areas like Taiz were increasingly hard to access due to the fighting.

WFP said it was scaling up its response but unless it gets around $125,000 in funding within a few weeks it will run out of food stocks and money to help the 152,000 newly displaced persons inside the country, as well as the 1.4 million people it is already supporting.