Yemen at highest risk of major conflict since 2022 truce, UN warns

Yemen faces its most serious threat of a return to large-scale war since a UN-brokered truce in 2022, UN envoy Hans Grundberg warns, as the UN body says more than half the country’s population is experiencing acute food insecurity.

The warning follows an escalation in hostilities between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terror group and its internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government that has raised fears of a broader return to war and a fueling of wider regional tensions.

Grundberg tells the UN Security Council that military activity has intensified along Yemen’s frontlines.

He says renewed Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden risk drawing Yemen further into wider regional confrontation, as regional trade and energy flows are already under pressure from the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, where control is contested in the US war with Iran.

Grundberg calls on the parties in Yemen’s conflict to immediately de-escalate and work towards a robust ceasefire, saying attacks and threats against shipping as well as cross-border attacks must stop.

The security deterioration has coincided with a worsening of Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher tells the council that more than half the population faces acute food insecurity, while 6 million people are at “emergency” levels of food deprivation bordering on famine.

Both Grundberg and Fletcher call for the release of 73 UN personnel detained by the Houthis, along with workers from non-governmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions.