Unicef: Yemen’s children face catastrophic crisis amid decade-long conflict

Malnourishment is a major concern

In Yemen, a decade of devastating conflict has left the country’s children enduring unimaginable hardships, with airstrikes continuing to threaten their lives and malnutrition rates soaring to staggering levels, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned on March 25, 2025.

Peter Hawkins, Unicef’s representative in Yemen, highlighted the urgent need for action, sharing his observations after visiting Hudaydah recently. “We need to move fast,” he urged.

“I was in Hudaydah over the past three days. I went through the western lowlands, where people are on the streets, on the side of the roads, begging and looking for assistance. They have given up. We cannot give up.”

Speaking from Yemen’s capital Sana’a, Hawkins painted a grim picture of the humanitarian crisis, which he described as a “manmade disaster” that has devastated Yemen’s economy, healthcare system, and infrastructure. Despite periods of reduced violence, he stressed that the impact on the population, particularly on children, has remained catastrophic. Over half of Yemen’s population, which stands at nearly 40 million, now depends on humanitarian aid to survive.

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“The structural consequences of the conflict, especially for girls and boys, have remained severe,” Hawkins explained, pointing to the overwhelming scale of the crisis. “Even in areas where fighting has decreased, the long-term effects are deeply damaging and will affect future generations.”

Unicef has been working to provide life-saving support, including malnutrition treatment and healthcare facilities, but Hawkins revealed that the agency’s operations are currently only 25 per cent funded for 2025. “Without urgent funding, we will not be able to sustain even the most basic services,” he warned.

The ongoing conflict in Yemen began in 2014 when Houthi rebels took control of large parts of the country, including the capital Sana’a, and ousted President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in March 2015. The Houthi forces have been locked in a bitter struggle with government troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition for more than a decade.

Though the large-scale ground fighting has slowed since the UN-mediated truce in April 2022, violence persists, with military activity continuing to destabilise the country.

On March 6, Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, briefed the Security Council, warning that the cessation of hostilities was at increasing risk. This month, the United States launched strikes on Houthi-controlled areas in retaliation for attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

Hawkins spoke of the grim reality on the ground, particularly in Hudaydah, a city devastated by years of warfare.

“Critical ports and roads, which are lifelines for food and medicine, have been damaged and blockaded. Food prices have soared more than 300 per cent over the past decade, exacerbating hunger and malnutrition.”

The Unicef official provided alarming statistics, revealing that one in two children under the age of five is malnourished in Yemen—a situation that is “almost unparalleled across the world”. Among them are more than 540,000 children who are severely and acutely malnourished, a condition that is both agonising and life-threatening. “This is entirely preventable,” Hawkins added.

The crisis of malnutrition is particularly severe in Yemen’s most remote areas, where children are often unable to access the treatment they so desperately need. “Malnutrition weakens immune systems, stunts growth, and robs children of their potential,” Hawkins said, emphasising the long-term developmental impact.

Adding to the distressing situation, around 1.4 million pregnant and lactating women are also malnourished, creating a “vicious circle of intergenerational suffering,” according to Hawkins. The situation is most dire in certain parts of the country, including the west, where severe and acute malnutrition rates have reached a shocking 33 per cent.

“This is not a humanitarian crisis. It’s not an emergency,” Hawkins concluded. “It is a catastrophe. Thousands of people, including children, will die if we do not act immediately.”

Image: Unicef provides life-saving support, including malnutrition treatment and access to Yemen’s healthcare facilities. Credit: Irwan Zahuri