The humanitarian situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating, with children and women bearing the brunt of the crisis, according to UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher.

In a briefing to the UN Security Council this week, Fletcher painted a grim picture of Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian disaster, emphasizing the catastrophic toll on the country’s youngest and most vulnerable.

“The numbers say it all: Half of Yemen's children – or 2.3 million – are malnourished. Of those, 600,000 suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Fletcher stated. He warned that vaccine-preventable diseases such as cholera and measles are compounding the crisis, citing that only 69 percent of children under the age of one are fully immunized, while 20 percent have received no vaccines at all – among the worst immunization rates globally.

Yemen, already struggling after years of conflict, accounted for over one-third of global cholera cases and 18 percent of related deaths last year. The country also recorded one of the highest measles burdens in the world, Fletcher added.

Women are also in dire need. The UN estimates that 1.4 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are affected by malnutrition, posing grave risks to both mothers and newborns. In total, 9.6 million women and girls urgently require life-saving humanitarian assistance amid rising hunger and a collapsing healthcare infrastructure.

Fletcher issued a stark warning about the diminishing capacity of aid agencies to respond: “We are running out of time and resources. Yemen's 2025 humanitarian response plan is barely 9 percent funded – less than half of what we received at the same time last year.”

He further cautioned that unless funding is urgently secured, nearly 400 health facilities, including 64 hospitals, could cease operations, affecting access to healthcare for nearly 7 million people.

As the crisis deepens, UN officials continue to call on the international community to take immediate action to prevent an even greater humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen. (ILKHA)