Yemen Humanitarian Crisis

• In 2024, 18.2 million people, more than 55% of the population, need humanitarian assistance and protection services in Yemen. This represents a 16% decrease compared to 2023.
• The most recent food insecurity projection found 1.27 million people in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Phase 4, or Emergency level, of food insecurity.
• Yemen remains one of the most contaminated countries globally by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). In January 2024, the UN mission to support the Hudaydah Agreement recorded 10 landmines and ERW-related incidents, resulting in 12 civilian casualties in the Hudaydah governorate.
• From Jan. 1 to Dec. 16, 2023, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Yemen tracked 59,016 people who experienced displacement at least once. Many of these individuals have been displaced multiple times over several years.
• Yemen has an INFORM Climate Change Risk Index for 2023 of 8.1, ranking third among the most vulnerable countries to climate change and least prepared for climate shocks, after Somalia and South Sudan.
• Almost 70% of children aged 3 years have not received the recommended essential vaccinations. This has led to more frequent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

Yemen faces high levels of disaster risk and is prone to climactic events, including severe drought and rainfalls that lead to flooding and water scarcity.

According to UNOCHA, “Localised natural disasters only worsen the humanitarian situation and present a major threat to the lives, livelihoods and well-being of many communities.”

In 2023, approximately 235,000 people were displaced due to natural hazards and severe weather events. UNOCHA found that between January and November 2023, 77% were displaced due to floods.

A cyclonic storm named Tej made landfall on the eastern Yemeni coast in October 2023. In addition to affecting over 60,000 people, the storm caused significant infrastructure damage. Parts of Yemen, an ordinarily dry country, saw eight times the average yearly rainfall from Tej.

The changing rainfall pattern in Yemen presents a climate-linked challenge. The changes result in insufficient rainfall, leading to droughts or excess rain and flooding.

Climate shocks such as droughts, floods and water scarcity can severely deteriorate livelihoods, given that agriculture employs almost 60% of Yemeni households. Droughts and water scarcity have resulted in an annual loss of 3-5% of arable land and a reduction of 40% in agricultural productivity. Low livelihoods can result in continued reliance on harmful coping strategies such as child marriage, school dropouts and labor, particularly among female-headed households.

According to the 2024 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO), an estimated 4.5 million people, 14% of the population, are displaced in Yemen, while almost 31% have been displaced multiple times over many years.

Natural hazards and disasters, particularly cyclones, drought and flooding, are now the leading cause of new displacements in Yemen. While already on a downward trend, the truce in 2022 helped decrease displacement caused by armed conflict. According to the HNO, Yemen remains among the countries least prepared to adapt or mitigate the impact of climate-induced disasters.

Displacement is an ongoing reality for people in Yemen. Between Jan. 1 and April 6, 2024 alone, IOM Yemen tracked 5,682 people displaced at least once, and in the first week of April, almost 85% of all IDP households reported a need for shelter. Prolonged or repeated displacement can affect education opportunities, livelihoods, health and protection.

In 2024, 6.2 million children and teachers are expected to need assistance. Last year, UNOCHA reported that the education cluster reached over 4.8 million people, hitting 86% of its target goal.

Nine long years of conflict have left Yemen’s educational infrastructure in dire conditions. According to a Save the Children report, two in five Yemeni children are out of school. The report found economic hardships and insecurity were the main drivers of children dropping out. Over 3,700 schools were also damaged or repurposed.

Another report by IMPACT Initiatives found two of the most widely reported obstacles to educational access are the inability to afford costs associated with education and the “long distance to reach school and lack of transportation.”

Teachers also face overcrowded classrooms, lack training and learning materials, and experience attacks on educational institutions. Approximately 170,000 teachers in Houthi-controlled provinces have not received salaries or incentives since 2016.

According to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in December 2023, “Negative coping mechanisms are on the rise, including increased gender-based violence, sexual exploitation, child marriage, child labour, military recruitment of children and interruption of education.”

Protection considerations are critical for education actors to ensure children can safely access services without causing harm.

Despite some improvements, Yemen remains one of the most food-insecure countries in the world. The most recent projection showed that the food insecurity situation was expected to deteriorate from January through February 2024 in most areas. This projection is based on seasonal trends and reduced humanitarian food assistance particularly in the Sana’a Based Authorities areas. A short reprieve is anticipated between March and May 2024 during Ramadhan and Eid festivities as Zakat, remittances and other transfers will increase.

The IPC’s acute food insecurity scale is broken down into five phases. Data is not always available for areas controlled by the Houthi, which makes it challenging to identify trends over time and the complete picture of food insecurity in the country. From October 2023 to February 2024, 4.5 million people in Yemen’s government-controlled areas will experience acute food insecurity.

The issue of food affordability continued to play out in 2023. Analysis from a multi-agency household survey found that, “Availability of food supplies does not seem to be an issue affecting people’s food security. The total amount of food available in Yemen is dependent on local production, commercial imports, humanitarian food assistance, and food stocks/reserves.” Displaced people, Muhamasheen and female-led households were cited by the survey respondents as the members of the community most affected by food insecurity.

The persistence of food insecurity in Yemen occurs against the backdrop of funding cuts. The WFP was forced to reduce the assistance rations they distribute in mid-2023, providing only 40% of the standard food basket per cycle. In December 2023, WFP paused food distribution in Houthi-controlled areas due to limited funding and disagreements with the group. As of early 2024, WFP Yemen said it is facing an “increasingly dire funding situation, and is just 7 percent funded for the January – June 2024 six month period, with a net funding requirement of US$ 1.30 billion.”

In March 2024, UNOCHA warned of a surge in food insecurity and malnutrition in recent months. Progress made in the past two years was “at the risk of unraveling.”

Affected communities in Yemen identified health services as one of their top priorities in a survey led by UNICEF in 2023.

The protracted nature of conflict in Yemen has severely decimated its healthcare structure and services, with 46% of facilities either partially operational or entirely out of service.

Nearly 17.8 million Yemenis have humanitarian health care needs, and 5 million children under five will require treatment for acute malnutrition in 2024. The dire health situation prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn the fragile health system is overburdened and “edging closer to collapse.”  

The country is experiencing an increase in vaccine-preventable diseases like measles. A lack of access to basic health services means routine immunizations are not possible for millions of children. In 2023, more than 50,795 people in Yemen had measles, and there were 568 deaths. In the last quarter of 2023, a surge in suspected cholera cases, risking an epidemic if action is not taken quickly, was also reported.

Persistent conflict and economic deterioration have compromised people’s access to health facilities. In February 2024, a study conducted in the Lahj governorate by Assessment Capacities Projects (ACAPS) found that households sought coping strategies such as relying on unqualified shopkeepers for health advice or using traditional and alternative healthcare to meet their basic health needs. Data from the study also supports a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which indicated members of women-headed households were hesitant to travel and seek healthcare due to safety reasons.

In addition, an estimated 7 million individuals need mental health support services, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Yemen currently has just 46 psychiatrists for the whole country.

Discriminatory societal attitudes toward women’s movement and economic and social engagement remain entrenched. In the 2021/2022 Women, Peace and Security Index by Georgetown Institute, Yemen was ranked in the bottom three countries concerning women’s inclusion, justice and security.

A study by Mwatana for Human Rights released on Aug. 30, 2022, found that incidents of gender-based violence (GBV) increased throughout the first seven years (the time period included in the study) of the conflict. Unfortunately, access to comprehensive GBV services is limited, and less than 5% of health facilities provide rape or GBV management services. More importantly, when general funding is reduced, GBV programming is among the first areas to be cut.

According to CARE International, over 30% of girls are married before the age of 18 due to the current dire economic situation. Additionally, “diminishing humanitarian aid and development funding are likely to result in increases in these numbers.”

The Muhamasheen (the Arabic term for marginalized) community is a Yemeni minority group representing around 10% of Yemen’s population. They have long endured discrimination, social exclusion and reduced access to public services, further compounded by intersecting identities, such as being displaced and/or women. Nearly 40% of Muhamasheen women have never attended school, and cases of GBV against Muhamasheen women are more prevalent.

In 2024, 2.7 million people with disabilities need humanitarian assistance. Normative and implementation gaps in Yemen’s legal framework continue to diminish the protection of minority and marginalized groups, including women and girls and people with disabilities.

Along with people with disabilities, the 2024 HNO found older persons also encounter difficulties accessing specialized services and live under precarious conditions with limited mobility.

According to HelpAge International in a March 2023 update, older people are particularly affected by high prices of basic food items and “many older women are also limiting their food intake so that their children and grandchildren can eat more instead.”

The humanitarian crisis severely impacts children. According to UNICEF, “The current humanitarian crisis in Yemen has increased the vulnerability of children and women to exploitation, violence and abuse, child labour, killing and maiming, recruitment and use of children by parties to the conflict as combatants and in various support roles, domestic and gender-based violence, child marriage and psychosocial distress.”