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Yemen aid lifeline nears breaking point as UN food agency appeals for $870 million
More than $870 million is needed to sustain lifesaving aid to war-torn Yemen over the next six months, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday, as UN humanitarians also warned that some projects were nearing “breaking point”.
“WFP needs $870 million to continue to deliver life-saving assistance to millions in Yemen in need of humanitarian assistance to survive. This is from June to December,” said Elisabeth Byrs, WFP senior spokesperson, speaking via videoconference.
The appeal comes after more than five years of fighting in the Arabian peninsula country, between the Government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi now based in the south – supported by a Saudi-led international coalition - and the mainly Houthi-led opposition, which occupies the capital, Sana’a, in the north.
According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, four in five Yemenis need humanitarian assistance.
Yemen was already one of the poorest countries in the world before violence escalated in March 2015, and today millions of people lack access to sufficient food, fuel and medicine, almost all of which is imported.
The WFP spokesperson noted the UN agency’s particular concern for “over 20 million Yemenis are food insecure, of which nearly 10 million are acutely food insecure”.
Ms. Byrs added that the agency “expects coronavirus to push many more children in Yemen into acute malnutrition. Over two million children in Yemen are already acutely malnourished, and it’s a figure that WFP fears will increase.”
« Nous sommes particulièrement inquiets pour les 20 millions de Yemenis qui souffrent d’insécurité alimentaire et dont 10 millions d’entre eux de ces 20 millions sont - souffrent - d’insécurite alimentaire sévère. Il y a egalement des enfants qui posent problème, il y avait deux millions d’enfants au Yemen qui souffrent de malnutrition aïgue. Nous pensons que ce chiffre va malheureusement continuer d’augmenter. »
As of Monday evening, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported nearly 50 confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in Yemen.
But there are widespread concerns that the situation is much worse.
It is also widely feared that with around half of the country’s health facilities shut, Yemen lacks the means to prevent this latest threat to an already weakened population that faces the ever-present threat of cholera and ongoing conflict that has displaced more than four million people.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, echoed concerns that the aid situation in Yemen threatens to spin out of control, describing it as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with unparalleled protection concerns.
“We’re seeing a growing number of families resorting to harmful coping mechanisms, such as begging, child labour and marrying of children to survive. And we’re reaching a potential breaking point in our programmes,” said Charlie Yaxley, UNHCR spokesperson, via videoconference.
Among the projects most at risk are the agency’s cash-assistance programmes for internally displaced and impoverished host communities.
Up to one million people will be exposed if the projects stop unless funding is found, Mr. Yaxley noted.
Under the scheme, each eligible family receives around $170 in instalments over six months to help pay for rent, buy food, extra clothes and fuel, along with medicine and other urgent concerns.
The development comes ahead of a UN pledging conference for Yemen planned for next Tuesday.
- Medium-wide shot: exterior, flag alley, Palais des Nations, United Nations Geneva, sunny, blustery.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP): “WFP needs $870 million to continue to deliver life-saving assistance to millions in Yemen in need of humanitarian assistance to survive. This is from June to December.”
- Wide shot: UN Geneva main entrance, elevated view of front gates.
- SOUNDBITE (FR) - Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP): « Nous sommes particulièrement inquiets pour les 20 millions de Yemenis qui souffrent d’insécurité alimentaire et dont 10 millions d’entre eux de ces 20 millions sont - souffrent - d’insécurite alimentaire sévère. Il y a egalement des enfants qui posent problème, il y avait deux millions d’enfants au Yemen qui souffrent de malnutrition aïgue. Nous pensons que ce chiffre va malheureusement continuer d’augmenter. »
- Medium shot: UN Geneva flag alley.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Elisabeth Byrs, Senior Spokesperson for the World Food Programme (WFP): “Over 20 million Yemenis are food insecure, of which nearly 10 million are acutely food insecure. WFP expects coronavirus to push many more children in Yemen into acute malnutrition. Over two million children in Yemen are already acutely malnourished, and it’s a figure that WFP fears will increase.”
- Medium shot: UN Geneva pedestrian entrance and flag alley, viewed from the Place des Nations, Geneva.
- SOUNDBITE (EN) - Charlie Yaxley, spokesperson, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR): “We’re seeing a growing number of families resorting to harmful coping mechanisms, such as begging, child labour and marrying of children to survive. And we’re reaching a potential breaking point in our programmes.”
- Wide shot, UN Geneva, UN flag flying.
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As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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