The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Yemen violence deepens concerns over child hunger crisis
Aid agencies in Yemen highlighted the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering from the most deadly form of malnutrition.
Of nearly 2,900 children screened in areas where there is safe humanitarian access, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said that more than one in four was acutely malnourished, while around 200 were sick with severe acute malnutrition.
“This is only a glimpse of how devastating the situation is across Yemen; every day we are seeing more and more cases,” said Akhil Iyer, the agency’s top official in the country.
Testimonies from some of the approximately 130,000 people who have fled clashes in the southwest illustrate how civilians have been severely impacted by the fighting in recent weeks, after years of food and nutrition crises.
“We spoke to Haifa, a young mother who fled Yemen's west coast as well, and she told us that the sounds of gunfire were closing in on her house, as her house was shaking. She told us that she didn't have time to think, she just knew that she had to run and run quickly with her family,” the UNICEF official said.
Today, Haifa and her family “live in extreme heat, in [one] a side of a tent”, in AlFirdos displacement camp near Aden. They have no way of earning money and they struggle to find food and medicine, Mr. Iyer explained. “She pointed out to us that displacement has stripped them of their dignity. This is in fact what displacement does.”
Briefing journalists from Aden, Mr. Iyer also described the plight of four-year-old Taha, who he found receiving treatment at a UNICEF-supported mobile clinic.
“His family had just fled violence in Mokha district, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) away, leaving behind their home and belongings. His mother told us, ‘We escaped with nothing. My only fear was that I would lose my son before finding help.’ Taha’s story is sadly not unique.”
Over the past three weeks, nearly 130,000 people in Yemen have been forced from their homes. That number includes an estimated 71,000 children. The majority have been uprooted in southwestern Taiz governorate where they are unable to move to safer areas “because of fighting, blocked roads, or lack of transportation”, Mr. Iyer continued.
Since 3 September, UNICEF has verified that at least 15 children have been killed and 14 injured, primarily by shelling attacks. Three more youngsters are still missing. “Behind every one of those children is a parent living through the unimaginable – grief, fear, or the agony of not knowing,” Mr. Iyer stressed.
Before the latest uptick in fighting, more than 2.2 million children under five in Yemen were projected to be acutely malnourished this year, with more than half a million suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
Providing healthcare for all those exhausted by repeated displacement is vitally important, particularly amid a spread of preventable diseases, including measles, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and cholera. But reaching communities with the highest health needs is becoming “increasingly difficult”, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
In 90 of the 105 health-cluster priority districts in northern Yemen, “UN operations have been suspended”, explained the agency’s Amna Smailbegović. “The disruption has a direct impact on essential services, including outpatient consultation, skilled deliveries and child health services.”
For its part, UNICEF and other aid agencies do not have safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to between 65-70 per cent of children because the areas where they live are controlled by Houthi opposition forces.
ends
Story: Yemen update – UNICEF, WHO
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
Duration: 4’06”
DATELINE: 25 September 2026 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND & AlFirdos displacement camp near Aden, Yemen (please credit UNICEF) More broll available here: https://weshare.unicef.org/Share/aoqbg65bq221k7i4s52t7y82q13ty26s
Speakers:
- Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, Aden
- Amna Smailbegović, WHO
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot, UN flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Wide, Press Room, podium moderator, journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “Absolutely, we are seeing an uptick in acute malnutrition among children, including the worst form, which is severe acute malnutrition. So, every day we are seeing more and more cases in these mobile and health and nutrition clinics that we've set up, not just around Aden, but in all accessible areas where IDPs have arrived and where we can assist them.”
- Wide, Press Room podium speaker and remote speaker on TV screen.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “We spoke to Haifa, a young mother who fled Yemen's west coast as well, and she told us that the guns, the sounds of gunfire were closing in on her house, as her house was shaking. She told us that she didn't have time to think, she just knew that she had to run and run quickly with her family.”
- Medium, Press Room, podium moderator.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “Today, she and her family live in extreme heat in [one] side of a tent with no source of income and they are struggling for food and medicine.”
- Wide, Press Room, remote speaker on TV screens, participants.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “In the past weeks, some nearly 2,900 children have been screened by UNICEF mobile nutrition teams in areas where we have safe humanitarian access. And more than one in four of these children are acutely malnourished. And some 200 had the very serious condition of severe acute malnutrition; and this is only a glimpse of how devastating the situation is across Yemen.”
- Medium, control booth.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “The journey in Yemen is extremely harsh, it's extremely arduous. So, it’s, they are much more vulnerable to the effects of the conflict, which are forced displacement. And their chances of surviving it and overcoming their dire state of acute - often severe acute malnutrition - is lessened with each movement, with each forced displacement.”
- Wide, Press Room podium moderator, external speaker on TV screen.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Amna Smailbegović, WHO: “The areas with some of the highest health needs are increasingly difficult to reach. [In] 90 of the 105 health clusters priority districts in the north, the UN operations have been suspended. The disruption has a direct impact on essential services, including outpatient consultation, skilled deliveries and child health services.”
- Wide, Press Room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Akhil Iyer, Country Representative in Yemen, UNICEF, from Aden: “Over the past three weeks, some nearly 130,000 people, including 71,000 children, have been forced from their homes due to the conflict. The majority are displaced from within the southern-western governorate of Taiz and they have been unable to move to safer areas often because of fighting, blocked roads or lack of transportation.”
- Wide, AlFirdos displacement camp near Aden.
- Wide, a family outside a tent at the camp.
- Medium-wide, a young girl holding onto a guy rope.
- Wide, a line of tents on scrubland.
- Children gathering outside a tent.
- Women and children walking along gravel path.
- A young girl sitting with empty bottles of water.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR
Displacement on the rise in Yemen as fighting continues - UNHCR
As hostilities worsen in Yemen, more people have been fleeing their homes, further intensifying the humanitarian crisis within the region, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | IOM , OHCHR , UNFPA , UNOG , UNHCR , WHO
Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement
Yemenis displaced by renewed fighting have described fleeing for their lives amid shelling and gunfire, aid agencies reported on Friday, while highlighting the dramatic increase in humanitarian needs in the country and in Djibouti, where thousands have sought shelter.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office issued on Friday a report documenting a shocking pattern of sexual violence amid Russia’s full-scale armed attack on Ukraine.
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
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”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.