Famine in Yemen (2016–present)
[15] While the country is in crisis and multiple regions have been classified as being in IPC Phase 4 (humanitarian emergency), an actual classification of famine conditions was averted in 2018 and again in early 2019 due to international relief efforts.
Aid often cannot effectively reach the population because of the ongoing civil war and the blockade of Yemen by Saudi Arabia which started in 2015.
[19][20][21][22][23] The blockade was intensified in November 2017 with the closure of all sea and land ports and then partially but not fully lifted at the end of the month,[24] and some humanitarian supplies were allowed into the country.
Prior to the civil war, Yemen was already the most vulnerable country in the Middle East, ranking highly among the world's most malnourished, with 50 percent of its population living in impoverished conditions with limited access to safe water.
Towards the beginning of March of the same year, the United States and Saudi Arabia implemented a series of economic sanctions and a Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthi rebels.
Fishing boats, the main livelihood of Al Hudaydah's residents, were destroyed by Saudi airstrikes,[40][41][dubious – discuss] leaving them without any means to provide for their families.
This horror is caused in part by our decision to facilitate a bombing campaign that is murdering children and to endorse a Saudi strategy inside Yemen that is deliberately using disease and starvation and the withdrawal of humanitarian support as a tactic.
"[63] The British researcher Alex de Waal has considered the famine in Yemen as The world's worst since North Korea in the 1990s and the one in which Western responsibility is clearest... Britain has sold at least £4.5 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia and £500 million to the UAE since the war began.
[66][67] Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's decision to relocate the Central Bank of Yemen to Aden in September 2016 was reported to have exacerbated the vulnerable living conditions of the population.
These multiple, interrelated and mutually reinforcing factors helped instigate a severe public sector cash liquidity crisis in mid-2016.
[1][2][3][dubious – discuss] On 5 November 2017, the Saudi-led coalition began blocking all fuel shipments to Yemen, causing farmers to abandon modern equipment like tractors and forcing hospitals to function without generators.
[72][73] On 13 December 2017, USAID administrator, Mark Andrew Green, stated that there are no signs that the blockade had been in any way eased and Yemeni ports are still fully blocked.
"[77] In October 2018, World Peace Foundation released a report documenting systematic targeting and destruction of food production and distribution infrastructure in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition.
[82] On 3 August 2019, a United Nations report said the US, UK and France may be complicit in committing war crimes in Yemen by selling weapons and providing support to the Saudi-led coalition which is using the starvation of civilians as a tactic of warfare.
[93] In December 2022, the World Food Program (WFP) published Yemenis Emergency needs with 23.5 million people lacking humanitarian assistance.
Key strategic objectives for the year included promoting life-saving activities, enhancing resilience, and ensuring protection for the affected populations.
The health sector faced a significant funding shortfall, exacerbating challenges such as cholera outbreaks and malnutrition's medical side effects.
In addition, support for livelihood development and cash-based interventions continued to be vital for fostering economic stability and self-sufficiency among Yemenis.
