The United Nations and its humanitarian partners issued the 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan (HNRP) on Wednesday, calling for US$2.16 billion to provide life-saving assistance to 12 million people across Yemen. In 2026, 22.3 million women, men, and children require humanitarian aid and protection as the country grapples with the region's most severe hunger emergency.
After more than a decade of crisis, humanitarian needs in Yemen continue to surge amid ongoing conflict, economic decline, displacement, recurring epidemics, climate shocks, and funding cuts. More than half of the population needs humanitarian assistance this year, including 5.2 million internally displaced people (IDPs), as well as migrants and refugees.
“With needs increasing, challenging operational conditions, including on safety and security of humanitarian workers, and resources shrinking, our response is focused on delivering principled, inclusive and accountable life-saving assistance, to those most in need,” said Zeina Ali, the interim Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen,
“The humanitarian community will also continue sustaining work and engagement with national and local institutions and partners and strengthen links with development actors. At the same time, the root causes of the crisis must be addressed,” Ali added.
Through the 2026 HNRP, humanitarian organizations aim to reach 12 million people, prioritizing 9.4 million in areas of the highest severity, as resources continue to be scarce. Last year, the humanitarian appeal for Yemen was funded at only 28.5 percent, forcing aid agencies to make extremely difficult decisions.
Surging needs, major funding cuts, and shrinking humanitarian access are forcing aid agencies to scale back life-saving support, leaving millions without urgently needed relief.
Yemen is experiencing one of the world's most severe hunger crises. According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, over 18 million people are experiencing acute food insecurity, including 5.8 million facing emergency levels of hunger (IPC Phase 4).
Not only is this the worst outlook for Yemen since 2022, but the country also has the largest number of people facing emergency levels of hunger globally. Additionally, 40,000 people are expected to face famine conditions (IPC Phase 5) in the coming months.
Funding cuts have caused essential services in Yemen to collapse. Nearly 40 percent of health facilities are only partly functioning or closed, and 14.4 million people need water, sanitation, and hygiene assistance. Meanwhile, climate-related shocks, including flooding and extreme weather, are intensifying the risk of disease transmission and damaging fragile health infrastructure.
Yemen continues to experience multiple concurrent disease outbreaks, including cholera, measles, dengue fever, and polio. These outbreaks are preventable and are driven by low immunization coverage, unsafe water and sanitation, displacement, and limited access to healthcare.
Food insecurity, limited access to healthcare, and preventable diseases are causing a dangerous rise in malnutrition, especially among children.
Yemen's nutrition crisis is one of the worst in the world. Currently, 2.5 million children under five and 1.3 million pregnant or breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished. Nearly half of all children under five are stunted. Some 600,000 children are severely malnourished, which threatens their lives and results in mortality rates 11 times higher than those of healthy children.
Aid agencies warn that although ongoing humanitarian efforts are saving lives and reducing suffering in Yemen, sustained and flexible funding is urgently needed to prevent the situation from worsening and to avoid catastrophic outcomes for millions of women, men, and children. Without urgent action, lives will be lost.
They also stress that, in order to support the most vulnerable people, they must have unhindered access, while aid workers and assets must be protected.
On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that humanitarian action alone is not enough.
"Progress will depend on restoring essential services, reviving livelihoods, and strengthening resilience, underpinned by a Yemeni-led political solution," OCHA said in an update.
The conflict between the Ansar Allah movement (also known as the Houthis) and Yemen's ousted government, alongside a Saudi-led coalition of Gulf countries, escalated over ten years ago when Saudi Arabia began launching airstrikes against the Houthis and their affiliated forces in 2015.
The country continues to be fragmented, with multiple actors controlling different parts of Yemen. The internationally recognized government is primarily based in the southern city of Aden, while the Houthis control the capital, Sanaa, and large areas in the north and west.
Further information
Full text: Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026 (March 2026), OCHA, released March 18, 2026
https://reliefweb.int/attachments/b9b4e7c1-30d6-4e12-b589-e5ac835c104d/Yemen_2026_HNRP_EN_final.pdf