In 2026, aid cuts, conflict and economic collapse push millions of Yemenis into acute starvation.
Published on January 19, 2026
Yemen, one of the world’s poorest nations, is expected to face a dangerous new phase of food shortages, with more than half the population – some 18 million people – facing it. Increased appetite By early 2026, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The warning follows new estimates under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system that were released on Monday and show an additional one million people are at risk of life-threatening hunger. It also comes as Yemen experiences the latest internal conflict with extra-regional actors involved in fighting in the country’s south.
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The assessment also predicts that more than 40,000 people in four districts will go hungry in the next two months – the country’s worst outlook since 2022.
The war years And large-scale displacement has disrupted livelihoods and limited access to basic health and nutrition services.
These pressures now overlap with a nationwide economic downturn that has reduced household purchasing power and raised food prices. At the same time, humanitarian aid has declined sharply.
By the end of 2025, Yemen’s essential humanitarian response was under 25 percent funded – the lowest level in a decade – while life-saving nutrition programs received under 10 percent of required funding, the IRC said.
“This rapid decline – exacerbated by catastrophic humanitarian funding cuts, climate shocks, economic collapse and recent insecurity – calls for urgent action to reverse the unfolding disaster,” the organization said in a letter. statement.
Caroline Sekeva, the IRC’s country director in Yemen, said the pace of decline was alarming.
“The people of Yemen still remember when they didn’t know where their next meal would come from. I fear we are going back to this dark chapter again. What distinguishes the pace and trajectory of the current deterioration,” she said.
She described families being forced into desperate choices. “Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a growing threat; it is a daily reality that forces parents to make impossible choices,” Sekyeva said, adding that some parents have resorted to gathering wild plants to feed their children.
Despite the dire picture, Sekyeva said the crisis was preventable. “Yemen’s food security crisis is not inevitable,” she said, calling for immediate donor action and pointing to cash assistance as one of the most effective tools to help families meet their basic needs with dignity.
The humanitarian warning comes amid renewed political and security concerns stress.
Yemen has been at the center of tensions between Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent months.
In December, the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council seized parts of southern and eastern Yemen and advanced near the Saudi border before Saudi-backed forces regained much of the territory.
Analyst warned Unresolved hostilities, along with disputes over geopolitics and oil policy, threaten to drag Yemen back into wider conflict, exacerbating a famine crisis that aid agencies say is imminent.