Yemen faces worst food crisis since 2022, aid group warns

Yemen faces worst food crisis since 2022, aid group warns

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) predicts that Yemen, one of the most impoverished countries in the world, will experience worsening hunger in the first half of 2026.

An additional one million people are thought to be at risk of life-threatening hunger, according to new projections released on Monday under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system. Additionally, Yemen’s most recent internal conflict comes at a time when regional actors from outside the country are engaged in conflict there.

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The country’s worst outlook since 2022 is also predicted for areas of famine that will affect more than 40, 000 people in four districts over the next two months, according to the assessment.

Access to basic health and nutrition services has been hampered by years of conflict and widespread displacement.

These pressures now intersect with a national economic collapse that has increased food prices and reduced household purchasing power. Humanitarian aid has also drastically decreased.

Life-saving nutrition programs received less than 10% of the funding, according to the IRC, compared to Yemen’s required humanitarian response by the end of 2025, which is the lowest level in a decade.

The organization called for urgent action to stop the rapid deterioration, which is being caused by catastrophic humanitarian funding cuts, climate shocks, economic collapse, and recent insecurity, in a statement.

The IRC’s country director in Yemen, Caroline Sekyewa, called the rate of the decline alarming.

Yemenis are recalled as having no idea where their next meal would come from. We’re going to have to go back to this gloomy chapter, I worry. She said that the current deterioration is distinguished by its speed and trajectory.

She spoke of families forced to make desperate decisions. According to Sekyewa, “Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a looming risk; it is a daily reality that forces parents to make difficult choices,” while some parents have taken to collecting wild plants to feed their children.

Sekyewa claimed the crisis can be avoided despite the dire situation. She urged immediate action from donors and cited cash as one of the best ways to assist families in meeting their basic needs with dignity and reaffirmed that “Yemen’s food security crisis is not inevitable.”

In response to renewed political and security tensions, the humanitarian warning is issued.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the Gulf’s closest allies, have recently been at odds with Yemen.

The Southern Transitional Council, backed by the UAE, advanced close to the Saudi border in December, before Saudi-backed forces seized a significant portion of Yemen.

Source: Aljazeera

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