The UN says that $4.3 billion is needed this year to prevent massive hunger in the war-torn country, in its seventh year of conflict against the Iran-backed Houthis. An estimated 19 million people in Yemen are in need of food assistance, an increase from 17.4 million last year. Some 7.3 million of them will be facing emergency levels of hunger. There also is a high level of acute malnutrition among children under the age of 5, with 2.2 million children acutely malnourished, including more than half a million children facing severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) reduced food rations at the start of the year for 8 million people due to a lack of funds, to half of the WFP standard daily minimum food basket.
Only 60.9% of Yemen’s 2021 response plan, amounting to $3.9 billion, has been funded.
The UN has been criticized for the aid it has sent, with accusations that aid has been diverted by the Houthis in areas under their control, and did not reach those who needed it.