LONDON: Renewed fighting in Yemen has pushed hunger to record levels, with the United Nations warning that three out of four families in government-held areas can no longer find enough to eat.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said almost 75 percent of households in areas it can reach are unable to meet basic food needs the highest figure this year. The situation may be even worse in territory controlled by the Iran backed Houthis, but the agency was forced to pull out of those zones earlier in 2026 after staff were detained.
The Houthis, who dominate much of northern Yemen, resumed attacks on pro-government forces in August and last month retook strategic stretches of the Red Sea coast. Scores of civilians have been killed and nearly 150,000 have fled, many arriving in Lahaj and Taiz after days without food or water.
Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s assistant executive director, told reporters in Geneva that the latest surge in violence threatened to be “absolutely devastating” for food security. Displaced families, he said, were surviving on leftover bread and soups made from leaves and grass.
In recent weeks the agency has fed more than 70,000 newly displaced people, but warned that around 350,000 others in Taiz and Hodeidah are now cut off by fighting. Aid stocks are running low even as the WFP tries to scale up assistance to reach up to 1.5 million people.
Hollingworth appealed for $109 million in emergency funding and $158 million to sustain operations over the next six months.
Yemen was already among the world’s most food-insecure countries, with more than 18.3 million people facing hunger and 2.2 million children under five acutely malnourished. The fresh fighting has sent food prices soaring, creating shortages of wheat flour and vegetable oil in a country that imports 90 percent of its food.
There are also fears that Houthi control of land around the Bab Al-Mandab Strait; a vital shipping corridor, could disrupt global trade and push prices higher worldwide. The WFP is additionally supporting more than 3,700 Yemenis who have fled to Djibouti.
The Houthis, who seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, have been accused of weaponizing aid. The WFP suspended operations in their areas in January after a crackdown on UN staff.
