Aid cuts push Yemen towards catastrophe as famine pockets feared: Report
Submitted by
Elis Gjevori
on
Mon, 01/19/2026 - 14:23
Rapid aid cuts and renewed insecurity pushing Yemen towards preventable famine, warns aid group
A displaced Yemeni man loads bags of food and supplies onto his motorcycle in the western province of Hodeida on May 4, 2025. (Khaled Ziad/AFP)
Off
Pockets of famine affecting more than 40,000 people are expected in several Yemeni districts within the next two months, the worst outlook since 2022, as the country slides rapidly towards another food-security catastrophe, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned on Monday.
The IRC sounded the alarm that Yemen is entering a dangerous new phase of hunger, with more than half the population, around 18 million people, projected to face worsening food insecurity in early 2026.
According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, a further one million people could be pushed into life-threatening levels of hunger.
Over more than 10 years, conflict and large-scale displacement have eroded livelihoods and stripped communities of access to basic health and nutrition services.
The crisis has deepened alongside a nationwide economic collapse that has cut household purchasing power and coincided with sharp reductions in humanitarian funding.
By the end of 2025, the aid response was less than 25 percent funded, its weakest level in a decade, while lifesaving nutrition programmes received under 10 percent of the funding required.
Yemen's dark chapter
The IRC said the pace of deterioration is alarming. Caroline Sekyewa, the organisation’s country director in Yemen, warned that the country risks reliving its darkest moments.
In 2018 an analysis from Save the Children found that an estimated 85,000 children under five may have died from extreme hunger or disease since start of the war in Yemen in 2014.
“People of Yemen still remember when they didn’t know where their next meal would come from. I fear we are returning to this dark chapter again. What distinguishes the current deterioration is its speed and trajectory,” she said.
Leader of UAE-backed Yemen separatists 'flees' and is accused of treason
Read More »
“Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a looming risk; it is a daily reality forcing parents into impossible choices. Some parents have told us they have started collecting wild plants to keep their children fed while they sleep on an empty stomach.”
Humanitarian agencies say funding cuts are accelerating the collapse. More than 80 percent of US foreign aid programmes have been cancelled, alongside reductions by other donors.
As a result, clean water systems have shut down in cholera-prone areas, healthcare services have closed, and millions have lost access to basic care. Less than 10 percent of the $2.5bn required for Yemen’s 2025 humanitarian response has been secured.
Local organisations report shutting down safe spaces, suspending psychosocial services and halting legal aid — dismantling fragile protection networks built over years, particularly for women.
At the same time, political tensions are resurfacing.
Early in January, Saudi Arabia launched strikes on the UAE’s ally in Yemen, the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), and bombed an Emirati arms shipment in the port city of Mukalla. Abu Dhabi subsequently withdrew its forces from the country, the STC’s control collapsed, and government troops retook Aden and surrounding areas.
The developments have once again raised the prospect of further escalations as the two regional powers vie over Yemen’s future.
Inside Yemen
News
Post Date Override
0
Update Date
Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19
Update Date Override
0