Yemen: 22 million people need humanitarian aid, the number is rising - Briefing | United Nations

Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the Council that more than 22 million people, nearly half of Yemen's population, need humanitarian aid, and that number is rising. “This crisis is hitting the most vulnerable first and hardest. Hunger is tightening its grip,” Wosornu said, adding that more than 18 million people face severe hunger and two out of every three families are forced to skip meals every day. The nutrition crisis continues unabated, she said, with 2.2 million children under the age of five acutely malnourished and 1.3 million pregnant and breastfeeding women facing life-threatening complications due to malnutrition. “For too many children, too many mothers, this means irreversible, lifelong physical and cognitive damage, stunting – even death,” Wosornu said. She warned that Yemen's health system is collapsing, with two out of every five health facilities not fully functional, leaving more than 19 million people who need healthcare without it. Vaccine-preventable diseases including cholera, measles and diphtheria are spreading at rates that place Yemen among the worst in the world, she said. Wosornu also told the Council that 73 UN colleagues remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthi de facto authorities, with many UN assets seized and access severely restricted. “Faced with this reality, we have been forced to reassess our operations in areas held by the de facto authorities,” she said.


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