Over half of Yemen’s population acutely hungry as UN warns crisis is accelerating
NEW YORK: More than 18 million people in Yemen — over half the country’s population — are acutely hungry, the UN’s top humanitarian official told the Security Council on Tuesday, describing a crisis that is deepening faster than the international community can respond.
During a Security Council meeting on Yemen, Tom Fletcher warned that the share of people unable to meet basic food needs had jumped from half to nearly 60 percent in just one month.
The proportion facing the most extreme deprivation rose from a quarter to nearly a third over the same period. “If nothing changes, hunger will deepen, suffering will grow, more lives will be lost,” he said.
The scale of the crisis is severe across both sides of Yemen’s divided territory. In areas controlled by the UN-recognized government, nearly half the population — around 5 million people — face severe hunger, with more than a quarter in emergency conditions.
