One million children going hungry in Yemen, UN says
Tom Fletcher told the UN Security Council that the food security crisis in the Arab world's poorest country, which is beset by civil war, has been accelerating since late 2023.
The number of people going hungry could climb to more than 18 million by September, he warned, and children with acute malnutrition could surge to 1.2 million early next year, 'leaving many at risk of permanent physical and cognitive damage'.
More than 17,000 Yemenis are in the three worst categories of food insecurity – crisis stage or worse – according to experts who produce the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a leading international authority that ranks the severity of hunger.
Mr Fletcher said the UN has not seen the current level of deprivation since before a UN-brokered truce in early 2022. He warned that it is unfolding as global funding for humanitarian aid is plummeting, which means reductions or cuts in food. As of mid-May, the UN's $2.5 billion humanitarian appeal for Yemen this year had received just $222 million, only nine per cent of its target.
Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since 2014, when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa from the internationally recognised government.
The Houthis control vast areas in the north-west of Yemen, including the Red Sea coastline. Most of Yemen's population lives in these areas.
The war has devastated Yemen, created one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, and turned into a proxy conflict at a stalemate. More than 150,000 people have been killed.
Hans Grundberg, the UN special envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council in a video briefing that two Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea this week – the first in over seven months – and Israeli air strikes on the capital and key ports are escalating the conflict.
The Houthis have vowed to keep attacking vessels in the key waterway until the war in Gaza ends.
Mr Grundberg said freedom of navigation in the Red Sea must be safeguarded and stressed that 'Yemen must not be drawn deeper into regional crises that threaten to unravel the already extremely fragile situation in the country'.
'The stakes for Yemen are simply too high,' he said. 'Yemen's future depends on our collective resolve to shield it from further suffering and to give its people the hope and dignity they so deeply deserve.'
Mr Grundberg warned that a military solution to the civil war 'remains a dangerous illusion that risks deepening Yemen's suffering'.
Negotiations offer the best hope to address the complex conflict, he said, and the longer it is drawn out 'there is a risk that divisions could deepen further'.
Mr Grundberg said both sides must signal a willingness to explore peaceful avenues – and an important signal would be the release of all conflict-related detainees. The parties have agreed to an all-for-all release, he said, but the process has stagnated for over a year.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
5 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel still wants UN to be main distributor of aid in Gaza, food agency official says
A senior official from the United Nations food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), told reporters on Friday that Israeli officials have signalled they want the UN to return to being the main supplier of aid in Gaza. "They wanted the UN to continue to be the main track for delivery, especially should there be a ceasefire, and they asked us to be ready to scale up," said Carl Skau, WFP deputy executive director, according to a Reuters news agency report. Skau was on a visit to Israel and Gaza last week.
The National
7 hours ago
- The National
UN conference for two-state solution rescheduled for end of July
Gaza water system has 'broken down' as Israel continues to deny fuel entry, IRC says Infant who had just uttered first words among dozens killed in Israeli strikes Lebanese President says no normalisation with Israel for now Nearly 800 aid-related deaths in Gaza since late May, UN says At least 57,762 Palestinians killed and 137,656 wounded since Gaza war began
The National
8 hours ago
- The National
Lebanon faces existential threat unless it addresses Hezbollah weapons, US envoy says
Lebanon risks being taken over by regional powers unless Beirut acts to address Hezbollah's weapons stockpiles, the US ambassador to Turkey warned on Friday. Tom Barrack, who also serves as the US envoy to Syria, told The National that Lebanon needs to resolve the issue or else it could face an existential threat. 'You have Israel on one side, you have Iran on the other, and now you have Syria manifesting itself so quickly that if Lebanon doesn't move, it's going to be Bilad Al Sham again,' he said, using the historical name for the Syria region. 'Syrians say Lebanon is our beach resort. So we need to move. And I know how frustrated the Lebanese people are. It frustrates me.' Mr Barrack said the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ready to help if Lebanon takes the lead. Last month, Mr Barrack presented Lebanese officials with a proposal to disarm Hezbollah and implement economic reforms to help lift the country out of its six-year financial crisis, one of the worst in modern history. The US proposal ties reconstruction aid and a halt to Israeli army operations to Hezbollah's full disarmament across the country. Since a US-brokered ceasefire began in November, the Iran-backed group has withdrawn most of its troops from the Israeli border. Israel insists it must be disarmed nationwide. In response to the proposal, Lebanese authorities submitted a seven-page document calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from disputed territory, including Shebaa Farms, and reaffirming state control over all weapons while pledging to dismantle Hezbollah's arms in south Lebanon. The document stopped short of agreeing to disarm Hezbollah nationwide. 'I thought it was responsive, very responsive,' Mr Barrack said, while acknowledging that issues remain. 'There are issues that we have to arm wrestle with each other over to come to a final conclusion. Remember, we have an agreement … it was a great agreement. The problem is, nobody followed it." He stressed the urgency for Lebanon to act. When asked if Hezbollah agreeing to lay down its arms and become a purely political party would prompt President Donald Trump's administration to remove the group from its foreign terrorist list, as it did with Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) in Syria, Mr Barrack declined to elaborate. 'I'm not running from the answer, but I can't answer it,' he told a group journalists in New York earlier on Friday. Asked why President Joseph Aoun has not publicly committed to a disarmament timetable, Mr Barrack said: 'He doesn't want to start a civil war.' The Lebanese armed forces are widely viewed as the 'best, neutral, reliable mediator' in the current crisis but face severe funding shortages due to Lebanon's economic collapse, Mr Barrack said. He noted that despite the Lebanese army's credibility, it operates 'on a shoestring budget', forcing UN peacekeepers in Lebanon (Unifil) to fill the gap with 10,000 troops. 'God bless the United Nations and the Unifil troops, but they don't really have command and control over harsh things,' Mr Barrack said. Mr Barrack acknowledged that any attempt to fully disarm Hezbollah could be volatile and risk sparking a civil war. He suggested a possible path could involve Hezbollah agreeing to voluntarily disarm its heavy weapons, including rockets and drones, handing them over to monitored depots under a 'mechanism' involving the US, France, Israel and the Lebanese army. Mr Barrack said the Lebanese army lacks the resources and manpower to take on such a mission. 'We don't have the soldiers on the ground for LAF to be able to do that yet, because they don't have the money. They're using equipment that's 60 years old,' he said. As a result, Hezbollah argues it cannot rely on the Lebanese army for protection, he added. 'Hezbollah is looking at it saying, 'We can't rely on LAF. We have to rely on ourselves because Israel is bombing us every day, and they're still occupying our land,'' he said, referring to disputed border areas known as the 'five points". Mr Barrack said addressing these security concerns, while preventing escalation into conflict, would require international support to strengthen Lebanon's army and a mechanism to manage heavy weapons, with buy-in from all sides. He said the US has approached its Gulf partners to seek funding for the Lebanese armed forces but has faced resistance. 'The US is going to our valued Gulf partners and saying, 'We want money to go to LAF,'' he said. 'Why do the Gulf partners not want to do that? Because they've given so much money to Lebanon in the past that's gone to the corrupt leaders. So they're saying, 'Yeah, we're done.'' He noted that Gulf states are reluctant to invest further without assurances that funds will bypass Lebanon's entrenched political elite and corruption. 'This is the big dilemma,' Mr Barrack said, adding that without sustained support for the Lebanese army, it will remain under-resourced, complicating any efforts to stabilise the country and reduce Hezbollah's hold. 'We need to help bolster LAF,' Mr Barrack said. 'We can do it hand-in-hand with the Gulf countries, hand-in-hand with Unifil, as we redefine what their role is on a continued basis.'
