• After more than seven years since the start of the civil war, the emergency in Yemen is now "chronic". This is the assessment of three UN agencies: Fao, Unicef and Wfp.
• Out of a population of just under 30 million, 19 million people will not have enough food in the second half of 2022.
• Within a matter of months, the number of people in conditions of extreme hunger will have quintupled: from 31,000 to 161,000 people. 2.2 million children under the age of five are malnourished.

After more than seven years since the start of the civil war, Yemen is in the grip of a situation that has become a "chronic" emergency. Out of a population of just under 30 million, 19 million people (more than 60 per cent) will not have enough food in the second half of 2022. These figures are alarming and, unfortunately, official. They appear in the new analysis published by three United Nations agencies: the Food and Agriculture Organization (Fao), the Children's Fund (Unicef) and the World Food Programme (Wfp).

In Yemen, 2.2 million children are malnourished

There is an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (Ipc) that identifies five stages of food insecurity, ranked from least to most severe. Already today, 17.4 million people fall into stage 3 or above, a number set to reach 19 million by the end of the year. Of these 19 million people, 11.7 million will be in a state of crisis (phase 3), 7.1 million in a state of emergency (4), and 161,000 in the worst phase of all — the fifth, known as catastrophe. This means that the number of people in conditions of extreme hunger will have quintupled within a matter of months; it currently stands at around 31,000 people.

Malnutrition affects the most vulnerable groups above all: in 2022, it will afflict 2.2 million children under the age of five (for 538,000 of them it is "severe") and 1.3 million pregnant and breastfeeding women.

What consequences will the war between Russia and Ukraine have

This humanitarian emergency is the product of a civil war that has been dragging on since 2015 and still shows no sign of moving anywhere near a peaceful resolution. On the contrary, 2022 is expected to bring an escalation of fighting in several critical areas. The local economy is on its knees, with interruptions, delays or serious inefficiencies in the most basic services, such as healthcare, access to water and energy, and schooling. The war between Russia and Ukraine will also take its toll, since virtually all of the food consumed in Yemen is imported; and 30 per cent of the wheat comes precisely from Ukraine.

Tom Fletcher @UNReliefChief

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A third of Yemen’s wheat comes from Russia and Ukraine, where the current conflict may restrict supply and push up food prices – which already nearly doubled in Yemen last year. There is no doubt of the harm that this will cause. 4/5

♥ 6💬 1 15 mar 2022 · Apri su X →

UN agencies do not have sufficient funds

The World Food Programme is operating in the area. Since the beginning of the year, however, lack of funding has forced it to cut food rations distributed to 8 million people. "We have no choice but to take food away from the hungry to give it to those who risk dying of hunger," said executive director David Beasley. At present, the World Food Programme must make do with 11 per cent of the funds it truly needs: it requires more than 800 million euros to provide food assistance to 13 million people over the next six months. Together, the UN agencies need 4.3 billion dollars to address this emergency. The appeal from the UN official responsible for coordinating humanitarian aid, Martin Griffiths, was heartfelt: "If we have one message for the world today, it is this: let us not stop now."