Published on 6/24/2026
Gunshots are no longer the only thing that wakes up Yemenis at night; There is another enemy that is knocking on doors: hunger that has grown and become brutal in light of a conflict entering its 11th year, leaving behind about 19 million people chasing a livelihood that does not come.
In the “Al-Jafina Camp” in Ma’rib Governorate, which is the largest gathering of displaced people in the country, the story of Muhammad Saeed sums up the entire tragedy, as Muhammad lives with his large family in a narrow tent that does not protect from heat or cold. On a small table, the family finds only a few bites of plain rice, a meal that has become considered a “luxury” in a time of scarcity.
Muhammad says in a tone filled with helplessness mixed with oppression: “I have 25 children with me, and I am a sick man who has suffered from angina, and I do not have food for two days. I go out every morning looking for any simple job just to make ends meet for the day.” Behind Muhammad stand more than 4 million displaced people in the country’s camps, representing the weakest and most fragile link in the face of the specter of a famine that is expanding day by day.
In the past, rain was a song of joy and good news for the Yemeni farmer, but even nature decided to turn its back on the Yemenis due to the harsh climate changes, and even the sky became waterless.
One of the farm owners said with regret as he looked at his cracked land: “We used to depend a lot on rainwater, and now it has diminished a lot. For 4 years, we have not even been able to sow seeds in the ground… We no longer plant anything.”
Behind these painful human stories, shocking United Nations statistics stand to sound the final alarm: 19 million people are haunted by severe food insecurity, and 17% of these have already entered the “food emergency” phase, which is a tragic classification that means one step away from total famine, and only 13% is the percentage of international funding currently available to confront this disaster, amid a sharp decline in humanitarian aid.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, the head of the “Faces” humanitarian organization, Mansour Al-Jaradi, explained this complex situation, saying: “The intersection of humanitarian crises with massive climate changes, accompanied by a severe shortage of international funds for conflict areas, has had a profound and severe impact on the daily lives of Yemenis.”
Hunger in Yemen is no longer just empty stomachs; Rather, it is a face of multi-faceted suffering: endless displacement, collapsed basic services, scarce water, and unemployment that devastates the youth. Between needs increasing and international donations drying up, the battle for survival continues to be difficult and harsh, waiting for a miracle or a real gesture from a world that seemed to have forgotten Yemen.
