Yemen

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today. 

Donors have given the equivalent of 25 US cents per day for each of the 24.3 million people in need in Yemen, about half the amount given last year, Oxfam warned today.

The dramatic cut comes despite COVID-19 heaping further challenges on a country already suffering the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

After enduring more than seven years of brutal conflict the people of Yemen have finally had the opportunity to experience what it means to feel hopeful. An unprecedented truce, now in its sixth month, brings with it the possibility for longer-term peace and the chance to rebuild lives and livelihoods. But while the conflict has slowed, humanitarian needs continue to increase, and the humanitarian response remains under and unequally funded. 

As Yemen enters its eighth year of conflict, the country remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than two thirds of the population – over 23 million people – need humanitarian assistance. Millions of Yemenis' lives have been shattered as they face a collapsing economy marked by rounds of currency depreciation and lost livelihoods, a fuel crisis, and destroyed vital infrastructure, dramatic hikes in the prices of essential commodities like food, fuel, and medicine, along with non-existent or irregular payment of public wages.  This is pushing more and more people into extreme levels of hunger. The severe funding shortfall for the humanitarian response has further burdened the Yemeni people – right now, Yemen is the least funded response globally. 
 

With one person estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, 238 local and international non-governmental organizations are calling on leaders gathering at the 77th UN General Assembly to take decisive action to end the spiralling global hunger crisis. 

Responding to the Yemen truce extension, Abdulwasea Mohammed, Advocacy, Media and Campaigns Manager for Oxfam Yemen, said: “Oxfam welcomes the extension of the truce in Yemen and urges all parties to now prioritise the lives of Yemeni civilians and uphold and fulfil all areas of the agreement.

Ahead of the end of the current UN-led truce agreement on 2 August 2022, Oxfam and 29 humanitarian organisations in Yemen urge all parties to the conflict to adhere to and extend the agreement to protect civilians across the country and allow them to rebuild and recover their lives.

Yemen is facing unprecedented rises in the price of food putting millions more people in danger of catastrophic hunger, Oxfam warned today.

In response to the news that the humanitarian truce in Yemen has been extended for another two months, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen Ferran Puig said: “We welcome the news that all parties have reached an agreement to extend the humanitarian truce in Yemen. It’s a hopeful sign that we can move towards a sustainable peace resolution to a conflict that has brought so much death and suffering to the Yemeni people."

Oxfam today urged all parties to the conflict in Yemen to extend the current truce to help avert catastrophic hunger and prevent the humanitarian crisis spiralling in Yemen. The two-month truce which is due to end on 2 June, has brought hope to the country after seven years of conflict.