The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday expressed deep concern about the impact of ongoing airstrikes on civilians in Yemen and the infrastructure they rely on, including health facilities. More than two dozen airstrikes have been reported since Monday. Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies continue to receive updates on the devastating impact of the attacks in recent days.
Aid agencies warn that the latest violence threatens to worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, where more than 19.5 million people are in need of life-saving assistance. Any further escalation could further destabilize Yemen and the region and pose grave risks to civilians.
US airstrikes in and around the Yemeni port of Ras Isa on April 17 and 18 reportedly caused more than 230 casualties, including 80 deaths and 150 injuries, among them five humanitarian workers.
OCHA said on Monday that humanitarian assistance was immediately mobilized to support local health facilities, including health, trauma and emergency surgery centers, and to provide surgical supplies.
There were also alarming reports of significant damage to port infrastructure and possible oil leaks into the Red Sea. On Monday, the UN Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) conducted a patrol of Ras Isa Port and found significant structural damage to the port and destruction of its facilities.
Strikes on April 17 damaged a hospital in Al Bayda governorate where humanitarian agencies were running an emergency obstetric and neonatal care program. Damage to the hospital's solar panels has left it unable to operate around the clock.
Meanwhile, in the city of Al Hodeidah, aid agencies are stepping up emergency assistance to meet rising needs related to the airstrikes,
In Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on Sunday US airstrikes reportedly killed 12 people and injured 30 others. The UN has confirmed five child casualties - all boys between the ages of seven and seventeen - from an airstrike in the capital.
OCHA on Wednesday reiterated its call on all parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, and said the UN and its humanitarian partners will "continue to stay and deliver wherever possible and as funding allows."
To date, this year's Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan for Yemen is just over 8 percent funded, with less than US$205 million of the nearly US$2.5 billion needed received.
Despite the lack of funding and increasing insecurity, agencies have mobilized food assistance for nearly 6 million people this year. They have supported more than 500 health facilities providing life-saving primary and secondary health services to some 225,000 men, women and children.
“The reality is that we cannot do more with less,“ UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists on Wednesday, noting that the people of Yemen are caught in “a horrific cycle of violence and humanitarian crisis”.
“Although funding is no substitute for the political solution that the people of Yemen so desperately deserve – it can and will help communities survive and stabilize,“ he added.
Dujarric said the UN also remains deeply concerned about the ongoing missile and drone attacks by Houthi rebels against Israel and in the Red Sea, and called on Ansar Allah to immediately cease such attacks.
“Security Council resolution 2768 (2025) related to Houthi attacks against merchant and commercial vessels must be fully respected,” he said.
On Sunday, Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, expressed grave concern about the impact of US airstrikes in and around Ras Isa port on civilians, particularly truck drivers and port workers, as well as civilian infrastructure.
“The cycle of attacks on the Red Sea by Ansar Allah and US airstrikes in response jeopardizes peace efforts and risks drawing Yemen further into the regional conflict. I therefore repeat my call for restraint, de-escalation, and for protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure by all sides in accordance with international law,” he said.
"Attacks on Red Sea must stop with credible guarantees that protect the Red Sea from becoming a prolonged arena of conflict."
Grundberg said such assurances are essential — not just for global security, but to keep Yemen from sliding further away from peace.
"I will continue to work with all actors towards that goal in order to reach sustainable peace in Yemen," Grundberg said.
Grundberg echoed the concerns expressed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres about the US airstrikes in and around the port of Ras Isa on April 17 and 18.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson on Saturday, Guterres recalled that international law, including applicable international humanitarian law, must be respected at all times and called on all to respect and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.
The Secretary-General also reiterated his call for the immediate and unconditional release of all UN and other personnel arbitrarily detained by the Houthis.
While international attention has been diverted to other global emergencies, Yemen remains one of the world's most severe and protracted humanitarian crises after a decade of war.
Houthi rebels - formally known as Ansar Allah - have been fighting government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, for more than a decade, after overthrowing the country's president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in January 2015. The Houthis control large parts of Yemen.
The conflict between the Saudi-led coalition of Gulf states and the ousted Yemeni government on the one hand, and the Ansar Allah movement on the other, escalated in March 2015 when Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against the Houthis and Houthi-allied forces, plunging Yemen into a devastating humanitarian emergency.
Military support for the coalition from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France has fueled the conflict and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis.
Large-scale ground operations in Yemen have not resumed since a six-month UN-brokered ceasefire took effect in April 2022, but military activity continues and the ceasefire has not been formally extended. Without a lasting political solution in Yemen and a lasting resolution to the war in Gaza, the situation remains precarious.
Ten years of crisis have severely impacted Yemeni communities, who continue to bear the brunt of the conflict. Over the past year, the humanitarian situation has remained dire or worsened in large parts of the country, with 1.3 million more women, children and men in need of assistance than in the previous year.