After more than ten years of conflict, Yemen is again on the brink of humanitarian disaster, standing as the world’s third most food insecure context, according to a humanitarian update published by UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
As of September this year, the update noted, 18.1 million people are estimated to face acute hunger (IPC Phase 3 and above). Hunger is deepening across the country, with as many as 166 districts expected to slide into emergency levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase 4) this month. Without sustained and large-scale assistance, as many as 41,000 people risk experiencing catastrophic, famine-like conditions (IPC Phase 5). This is the worst outlook for Yemen since 2022, when the country was grappling with fully fledged conflict.
The update concluded that the situation is particularly severe for internally displaced persons (IDPs), with nearly seven in ten families reporting in June that they were unable to meet their basic food needs.
That same month, almost one in three families were going a whole 24-hour period without eating. As in other crises around the world, women and girls are facing heightened vulnerabilities due to acute food insecurity, often eating least and last and finding themselves increasingly exposed to protection risks.