Slowly starved to death: escalating crisis in Yemen

Deadly clashes and air strikes in Yemen have forced millions of people to flee their homes and killed and injured thousands.

Now Yemen is being slowly starved to death. Children and parents are at risk of catastrophic hunger and the country is just a few months away from running out of food.

A recent harrowing report from Yemen by the BBC’s Fergal Keane has shone a spotlight on the crisis in this part of the world.

The situation

Bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the east, Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East increasing when fighting escalated in March 2015.

A 20 month-long war, waged between a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf countries and the Government of Yemen against the Houthis, has brought the country’s economy to near collapse.

Half of the population – 14.4 million people – require help with food. 21.1 million people are in need of life-saving aid, over 80% of the population.

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate with fuel shortages, rising food prices and a severe lack of basic services making daily survival a painful struggle for millions.

Oxfam is there. Our Country Director in Yemen, Sajjad Mohammad Sajid, says: “People desperately need food and water, medicine and health services, they need aid that can reach them – ultimately they need the conflict to end so they can rebuild their lives. All those fuelling Yemen's tragedy need to stop being arms brokers and start becoming peace brokers. The international community must redouble its efforts to help bring this crisis to a peaceful resolution.”

Ferdose

Ferdose (40) fled her home in Taiz when her house was burnt in the war and she had nowhere to go.

“Local residents hosted us in a room in one of the houses. My husband lost his job. For about a year now, we have been depending on the aid provided by local residents and Oxfam,” she explains. Oxfam provided Ferdose with a hygiene kit, as well as food vouchers every month so she can buy food in the local market.

Above: 40-year-old Ferdose fled Taiz when her house was burnt in the war and she had nowhere to go. Our team provided Ferdose with a hygiene kit, as well as food vouchers every month so she can buy food in the local market. Photo: Moayed Al-Shaybani/Oxfam

What Oxfam is doing

We are delivering clean water to people in the north and south of the country and have reached more than 913,000 people with water, food vouchers, hygiene kits and other essential aid. Our aim is to reach 1.2 million people with the help of our supporters.

Help so far has included:

Cash payments to 106,000 people to help families displaced by the conflict to buy food.
Clean water and sanitation services for 435,500 people, including in hard-to-reach areas of the country, by trucking drinking water and repairing water systems and latrines. We are also providing equipment to enable urban water authorities to pump water to an additional 820,000 people in Aden and Al Hawtah.
Supporting more than 11,000 families with livestock treatment and supporting more than 14,000 people with cash for work.

We are calling on the Saudi-led coalition to lift shipping restrictions to allow food and other vital imports to increase, and urging all parties in the conflict to allow food to move freely around the country and agree a meaningful ceasefire and restart peace talks.