Acute malnutrition among Yemeni children in Saudi-sponsored government-held areas of the country has risen sharply this year, according to a United Nations taskforce based in Yemen.
“The number of children under five suffering from acute malnutrition, or wasting, has risen by 34 per cent compared [with last year],” with 120,000 struggling with “severe malnutrition” out of more than 600,000 malnourished, reported the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Technical Group, which comprises several UN agencies.
“This sharp increase is due to the combined effects of epidemics (cholera and measles), food insecurity, limited access to clean water, and economic decline,” the taskforce stated.
The report covers all 117 southern areas where malnutrition is predicted to continue until October. For the first time “extremely critical levels” of acute malnutrition have appeared among 30 per cent of children in Hodeidah port on the Red Sea and Taiz in the hills, the statement said. In December 2023, the World Food Programme (WFP) suspended food distributions in the rebel Houthi-controlled north due to lack of funds and a dispute with the authorities on food basket reductions.
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UN children’s fund Unicef representative Peter Hawkins said the report confirmed “an alarming trend” as a shortage of funds had compelled several international organisations to reduce their programmes.
The WFP “is currently forced to provide smaller rations, and these results should remind us that lives are at stake,” said WFP representative Pierre Honnorat. Yemen could “sink further into food insecurity and malnutrition if the current low levels of humanitarian funding persist”, he warned.
In its emergency appeal, the WFP stated: “Children are bearing the brunt [of the food crisis]. A whole generation is a risk of losing their futures to malnutrition. In hospitals across the country, acutely malnourished children are ill and some barely have the strength to keep breathing. But they don’t have to die, they just need food.”
The poorest country in the Middle East, Yemen has been locked in a decade-long conflict between Saudi-backed forces and the Houthi movement – a member with Hamas and Hizbullah of the Iran-supported so-called axis of resistance – which rules the north, where the majority of Yemenis dwell. While fighting has diminished since a six-month truce was agreed in 2022, UN representative Hans Grundberg told the UN Security Council: “We are continuing to witness military preparations and reinforcements accompanied by continuous threats of a return to war.”
Citing reports of clashes in six dozen towns and cities, Mr Grundberg said this “serves as a stark reminder of how volatile the situation is along the Yemeni front lines”. He warned that Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping – intended to exert pressure to end Israel’s Gaza war – and US and UK retaliatory strikes on Yemeni military sites were “not sustainable”.
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