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

GENEVA: 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 said on Friday (Oct 2).

Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned 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 Programme Operations told reporters in Geneva. The total population of government-held areas is estimated at around 10 million people.

“The effect of this latest flare-up of insecurity on the food security situation threatens to be absolutely devastating,” Hollingworth told reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.

The Houthis, who already control most of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, seized the country's entire Red Sea coast last month from Saudi-backed forces of the internationally recognised government, based in the southern port of Aden.

Displaced families are arriving outside Aden and around the mountain city of Taiz without any water or food, as many had to leave everything behind, WFP said.

Prices of basic food staples such as wheat flour and vegetable oil are rising in a country that imports around 90 per cent 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 US$109 million 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.

Hollingworth also pointed to the potential ripple effects of disruption to two major chokepoints in the Middle East: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen at the mouth of the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.

That, as well as disruption in the Black Sea due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, risk driving up food and fuel prices and deepening food insecurity globally.

A new analysis published by UN Women on Friday said an additional 11.7 million women and girls across 28 countries including Yemen, Sudan and Lebanon could face food insecurity by the end of the year, due to escalation in the Middle East and disruption to the Strait of Hormuz.