Picking up the pieces

What Yemenis need to rebuild their lives in a country torn apart by conflict

Publication date: 20 September 2016
Author: Soman Moodley

Since March 2015, more than three million Yemenis have fled their homes, displaced by ongoing conflict. Many have been displaced for months or more than a year; they are quickly running out of ways to make ends meet. The situation is dire and getting worse, and hope for successful peace talks is fading.

Both displaced people and the communities hosting them face severely depleted funds, runaway inflation and a lack of opportunities to make a living. Forced coercion into armed groups, forced early marriage and tensions within families and communities are on the rise.

Drawing on surveys conducted in Yemen, this paper sets out what Yemenis are facing and what governments, armed parties and agencies must do to help get Yemenis back on their feet and reduce the chance of an entrenched, long-lasting crisis.