Conflict cuts off food assistance to 800,000 people in Yemen

ADEN, YEMEN – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned today that escalating conflict in Yemen has cut off life-saving assistance to 800,000 people. Shifting frontlines, blocked roads and growing insecurity are severely restricting humanitarian access in the city of Taiz and other areas affected by the conflict. Districts in Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, have hosted the largest numbers of internally displaced people since the beginning of the crisis and many are now inaccessible due to ongoing fighting and imminent road closures around Yemen’s most populous governorate. The loss of access is especially alarming given that Taiz has some of the country’s highest levels of food insecurity with ten out of 16 districts previously classified at Emergency levels (IPC 4). WFP’s latest monitoring indicates that wheat flour stocks are nearly exhausted and that remaining food supplies in local markets may last only a short time if access constraints continue. “We are critically concerned about the escalating conflict, but even more so about the growing number of people we can no longer reach because of it,” said El-Khidir Daloum, WFP Representative and Country Director in Yemen. “Many of the families affected have been displaced multiple times and were already struggling to afford even basic food items. This is the kind of situation that can rapidly spiral into a humanitarian catastrophe if assistance cannot move safely and reach those who need it most.” WFP and its partners cannot access more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on humanitarian assistance, including more than 200,000 women and children. Combined with communities affected by access losses on the West Coast of Yemen in early September, a total of 800,000 people are now beyond WFP’s reach. Across Yemen, more than 18 million people face acute food insecurity. Some 2.2 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished, including 500,000 suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition. Recent WFP monitoring in accessible areas of Yemen found that 74 percent of households were unable to meet their basic food needs. This is a record number for this year and indicates food security is significantly deteriorating. Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations told reporters in Geneva recently that, “Hunger in Yemen today is accelerating before our eyes. And the effect of this latest flare up on the food security situation in Yemen threatens to be absolutely devastating.” The escalation has also severely disrupted WFP operations. Offices have been breached, assets and food stocks lost, and critical supply chain routes cut off, undermining humanitarian efforts at a time of growing need. At the same time, seventy-two UN personnel remain detained by Houthi de facto authorities, including 37 WFP colleagues. WFP joins the UN Secretary General in calling for their immediate and unconditional release. While access to some of the worst-affected areas remain cut off, WFP has provided emergency assistance to more than 115,000 people newly displaced by the fighting in locations it can still reach. As displacement spreads and humanitarian needs increase, WFP stands ready to scale up assistance to up to 1.5 million people as access allows. Safe and sustained humanitarian access, together with immediate funding, are critical to ensure assistance can be rapidly delivered wherever and whenever conditions permit. Without new funding, WFP will be forced to significantly reduce assistance from November, just as more families are being forced from their homes and relying on humanitarian support to survive. WFP needs USD 268 million to sustain emergency food assistance, nutrition programmes, school meals, resilience activities and critical humanitarian logistics services in Yemen through 2027. High-resolution photos available here Broadcast quality video footage can be downloaded here # # # The United Nations World Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian organization saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of weather extremes. Follow us on X, formerly Twitter, via @wfp_media, @WFPYemen For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org**):** Sara Cuevas Gallardo, WFP/Yemen, Mob. + 59177177172 / +967 779900906Abeer Etefa, WFP/ Cairo, Mob. +20 106 6634 352Julian Miglierini, WFP/ Rome, Mob. +39 348 2316793Rene McGuffin, WFP/ Washington Mob. +1 771 245 4268Nicola Kelly, WFP/London, Mob +44 (0)796 8008 474