The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is warning that ongoing hostilities in Yemen are forcing people to flee their homes, causing civilian casualties and putting already strained humanitarian operations under increasing pressure. According to OCHA, around 125,000 people had been displaced by renewed fighting as of Monday.
In an update on Tuesday, OCHA expressed deep concern about the humanitarian impact of the ongoing hostilities. The toll on civilians continues to grow, forcing families from their homes and killing and injuring those caught in the crossfire. Already stretched humanitarian operations are under mounting pressure.
Since fighting escalated between the Ansar Allah Movement (also known as the Houthis) and Yemen's internationally recognized government earlier this month, families have been forced to flee multiple times as fighting spreads across the west coast, Taiz and beyond. People are reportedly moving towards the governorates of Taiz, Aden, Lahj, and Abyan.
On Monday, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned that the brunt of this crisis is being borne by communities that already had limited resources and were struggling even before the fighting reached them. Displacement disrupts access to the services, support, and protection that women, children, and people with disabilities rely on, leaving them at heightened risk.
The latest wave of displacement follows the fall of the strategic port city of Al Mokha, with many families fleeing for the second time in a matter of weeks. Those arriving in host areas report that they had no time to collect their belongings and that many left their livestock and livelihoods behind.
“Families in Yemen are being forced to run again and again, and their children are paying for it twice. Once with their safety, and again with their education,” said Caroline Sekyewa, IRC's Yemen Country Director, on Monday.
“Families are sheltering wherever they can find space, some with nothing over their heads at all.”
The IRC is calling on all parties to the conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure and ensure that aid workers can reach people safely and without delay. The humanitarian organization also urged donors to sustain and quickly increase funding so that responders can keep pace with the deepening crisis.
Humanitarian organizations are already stretched thin, and funding has not kept pace with growing needs. This year's US$2.2 billion humanitarian appeal for Yemen is only 20 percent funded, with $438 million received thus far.
On Tuesday, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher released $9 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to provide urgent assistance to displaced families and their host communities.
Civilian casualties are mounting while insecurity hinders aid operations
The toll on the civilian population is increasing. From September 1 to 14, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) verified 40 civilian casualties, including eight deaths and 32 injuries. Women and children accounted for half of those killed and more than half of those injured.
Security incidents affecting humanitarian premises, supplies, and movements are hindering aid operations. For instance, although aid agencies have 15,000 emergency kits ready to go as part of their rapid response efforts, cuts to roads mean the majority are stuck in Aden.
The Mokha seaport sustained significant damage during the recent fighting, and operations there have been suspended. The Houthi de facto authorities have seized a key humanitarian compound and its assets in Mokha. The compound houses UN agency staff working to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in the area.
All UN personnel working at the compound left before the seizure and are safe and accounted for. The eight national UN staff members who had been in the area relocated themselves safely from Mokha to Aden, Turba, and Taiz prior to the current incidents. Currently, no UN personnel remain in Mokha, and one international staff member has arrived in Aden.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has reported disruptions at 17 front-line distribution points.
OCHA warns that humanitarian access and movement remain severely constrained due to insecurity. Movements of humanitarian aid into and within several locations on the west coast remain suspended while key roads are restricted or impassable, making it more difficult to reach those in dire need.
Despite extremely difficult operating conditions, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to respond. As of Saturday, they have provided aid to thousands of households. However, supplies are critically low, and funding falls short of needs.
OCHA is once again calling on all parties to protect civilians, respect international humanitarian law, and facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access so that urgently needed assistance can reach communities in need.
The sharpest escalation of conflict in Yemen in over four years
During an emergency meeting on Thursday regarding the escalation of conflict in Yemen, the UN Security Council heard that the period of relative calm in the country has ended. The international community must now determine how to address this new and more dangerous phase of war.
The situation in Yemen had already become increasingly fraught in recent months. In connection with the war initiated by Israel and the United States against Iran on February 28, the Houthis — officially known as Ansar Allah — launched attacks against Israel at the end of March. This prompted renewed concerns that Yemen would be drawn into the escalating conflict.
In August, Hans Grundberg, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen, warned the Council that Yemen faced “a more serious risk of return to large-scale conflict than at any point since the 2022 UN-mediated truce”.
“That risk has now turned into a harsh reality,” Grundberg said at Thursday’s meeting, pointing to intensified fighting across multiple front lines. The Houthis have gained control of the port city of Mokha, which lies roughly 75 kilometers from the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
He reported that these developments followed weeks of escalation and recalled that the Houthis launched extensive attacks in the cities of Taiz and Hudaydah in early September.
These attacks set off increasingly intense confrontations with government forces, spreading elsewhere and resulting in civilian casualties and displacement.
Furthermore, the Houthis have reportedly attacked civilian and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia.
“This renewed war should alarm us all,” he emphasized, as it “effectively marks the end of the relative calm” that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce”.
Grundberg said that the situation was “not inevitable”, stressing that Yemeni demands can be addressed through negotiations.”
This sudden unraveling of truce-like conditions threatens to completely overwhelm a population that is already teetering on the edge of survival.
Nearly two-thirds of Yemen's population are in need of humanitarian aid
The military escalation comes as hunger, malnutrition, loss of resilience, and collapsing humanitarian funding have already pushed millions of Yemenis deeper into crisis. An estimated 22.3 million people—nearly two-thirds of Yemen's population—need humanitarian assistance.
Currently, over 53 percent of the total population—approximately 18 million people—are experiencing severe food insecurity. Yemen's nutrition crisis is one of the worst in the world. More than 2.5 million children under five, as well as 1.3 million pregnant or breastfeeding women, are acutely malnourished. Nearly half of all children under five are stunted.
Furthermore, 40 percent of the country's health facilities are nonfunctional or partially functional, severely limiting the capacity for malnutrition screening and treatment. As the health system continues to collapse, an estimated 19.3 million people require urgent healthcare. Years of declining funding have left healthcare facilities with limited capacity to handle a new wave of conflict.
Yemen's ongoing emergency is set against the backdrop of continued fragmentation and conflict among multiple factions. These factions include the Houthi rebels, who control the capital city of Sanaa and large areas in the north and west; the internationally recognized government, which is based in Aden; and various armed groups that control different parts of the country.
Having already endured more than a decade of conflict, Yemen is now facing a return to sustained, large-scale fighting, which will have severe consequences for civilians and make the already difficult path toward a political settlement even harder.
On Tuesday, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) issued a statement warning that this escalation could not come at a worse time for Yemenis.
"In a country where half the population are struggling to put food on the table, and where many children have only known displacement, renewed full-scale conflict would be a blow to millions of families already struggling to make ends meet," said Jan Egeland, NRC Secretary General.
The unresolved conflict and climate-related disasters have already forced millions of people from their homes. Yemen is facing the world's fifth-largest internal displacement crisis, with over 5 million people displaced within the country. Internally displaced people, refugees, and migrants are among the most vulnerable.
"The humanitarian crisis unfolding today is worsened by years of chronic neglect. The international community must act now to mobilize the resources needed to ease the suffering of millions and avoid deepening conflict ," Egeland said.
“Yemen simply cannot withstand another emergency. The human cost is already far too high.”