More than half of Yemen’s population is expected to face worsening food insecurity in the months ahead, as the country tops global emergency-level hunger rankings, according to a UN-backed analysis.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) assessment shows Yemen has the highest number of people in Phase 4, or emergency-level, food insecurity globally. More than 5.5 million people are resorting to what the IPC describes as “negative and often irreversible” coping strategies to survive, including borrowing food, taking on debt, begging, skipping meals and selling off assets.
An estimated 18 million people are expected to experience worsening food insecurity by next month, the IPC forecasts, while a further one million face life-threatening hunger. Meanwhile, all efforts to tackle malnutrition and food security are expected to go into reverse because of funding cuts.
“Yemen is entering its most dangerous food security phase in years,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a report released on Monday, warning of famine-like conditions and rising malnutrition among children and women.
Nearly 80 per cent of households assessed by IRC reported severe hunger, and half of households with children under five reported at least one malnourished child, the report found.
Additionally, famine-like conditions are expected to emerge in four districts, affecting more than 40,000 people, within the next two months – the country’s worst outlook since 2022, the IRC said.
The situation in Yemen had improved in recent years after the end of large-scale fighting in the civil war that broke out in 2014, although control of the country is divided between rebels in the north and an internationally recognised government in the south.
“Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a looming risk; it is a daily reality forcing parents into impossible choices,” said Caroline Sekyewa, the IRC’s country director in Yemen. “Some parents have told us they have started collecting wild plants to keep their children fed, while they themselves sleep on empty stomachs.”
“People of Yemen still remember when they didn’t know where their next meal would come from. I fear we are returning to this dark chapter again,” she added.
“Children are dying and it's going to get worse,” Julien Harneis, UN resident and humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, told reporters in Geneva on Monday. “For 10 years, the UN and humanitarian organisations were able to improve mortality and improve morbidity … this year, that's not going to be the case.”
Yemen continues to experience one of the world's largest humanitarian crises due to years of conflict and economic collapse, a situation worsened by a sharp decline in international aid. About 21 million people will need humanitarian assistance this year, an increase from 19.5 million the previous year, according to the UN.
The IRC said unprecedented funding shortfalls in 2025 have disrupted nutrition and food-security pipelines in Yemen, “removing the last safety net for millions of people”.
By December, Yemen’s 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan had received only about a quarter of its required funding – the lowest level in a decade – forcing agencies like the IRC to scale back life-saving assistance.
Yemen’s food security crisis is not inevitable, the IRC said, urging “immediate, targeted donor action … to prevent an even greater tragedy”.
