While international attention focuses on the conflict in Iran and its regional effects, the devastating crisis in Yemen has hardly gone unnoticed. The Yemeni people are dying of hunger in silence. More than half the population, 18 million people, are expected to face increasing levels of food insecurity by early 2026. To understand the magnitude of this crisis, let’s imagine the entire population of the Netherlands going hungry.
In a survey conducted by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) last year, nearly all respondents identified food as their most urgent need, with nearly 80 percent of families reporting severe hunger. These are not isolated difficulties, but a widespread reality that shapes daily survival in all communities.
Our findings echo the latest projections from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which warn that another million people are currently at risk of falling into life-threatening hunger, classified as IPC Phase 3+. CPI Phase 3 and above means families routinely skip meals, rely on debt, and sell what little they have left (jewelry, livestock, tools, even doors and cooking gas cylinders) to buy food. It also means that children are more likely to suffer from acute malnutrition and diseases that would normally be survivable become fatal.
Even more alarming is the fact that famine pockets affecting more than 40,000 people in four districts are expected to emerge in the next two months, marking Yemen’s bleakest food security outlook since 2022. For many families, meals have become a daily ration of bread and water. For others, adults go without eating so their children can eat.
In health centers we see the consequences: children dangerously weakened by malnutrition and nursing mothers, themselves malnourished, who do everything possible to support their babies.
In these conditions, hunger is not just the absence of food, it is the constant shutdown of the body. Parents are forced to stretch small amounts of flour to make flatbread or dilute lentils until they are almost broth. These coping mechanisms are now common in the communities we visited, where families survive on one meal a day because prices have skyrocketed and incomes have plummeted.
Historically, Yemen has produced only a small fraction of its own food and has relied on imports for approximately 80 to 90 percent of basic grains. A structural vulnerability that has been aggravated by years of conflict and economic contraction. The fighting has restricted the ability of many people to work their land or tend livestock, forced rural families from the fields, and cut supply chains for fuel, fertilizer and seeds.
Irregular rainfall and rising temperatures linked to climate change have further reduced agricultural productivity. Even in seasons when it rains, families report that water scarcity and degraded soils make farming a gamble, and without market security and functionality, local production cannot come close to meeting needs.
Yemen has been on the brink of a precipice for too long. But what makes this moment different – and more dangerous – is that humanitarian funding that once acted as a fragile barrier against catastrophe has been severely cut. As accelerating economic collapse converges with aid cuts, climate shocks and renewed military escalations, millions of people are finding themselves ever closer to an irreversible crisis.
At the end of 2025, the humanitarian response in Yemen was less than 25 percent funded, the lowest funding level in a decade. Life-saving nutrition assistance received only 10 percent of the funds needed to help those in need.
At the International Rescue Committee we have seen first-hand that the consequences of aid cuts were immediate and devastating. When critical nutritional services were suspended, the number of people served was reduced by more than half. Therapeutic feeding centers and clinics closed their doors and admissions to medical centers for severe acute malnutrition decreased. Not because fewer children needed support, but because they simply had nowhere left to receive treatment.
The large-scale food security crisis in Yemen is not inevitable and the priority actions needed to turn the tide are clear.
To help Yemeni families recover on their own, donors must first urgently restore and expand integrated financing for food security and nutrition in the most affected areas. Second, funding should prioritize nutritional treatment for children and pregnant and lactating women, including an uninterrupted supply of ready-to-use therapeutic foods.
Yemen also needs support to build shared systems that track food availability and people’s nutrition so that potential hotspots can be detected early and humanitarian actors can respond quickly and in a coordinated manner.
Immediate, targeted action by donors – and investment in proven humanitarian solutions, such as targeted cash assistance for families at risk of malnutrition – can prevent widespread loss of life this year and help communities begin to genuinely recover. It is not too late to avoid an even greater tragedy.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
