The ongoing food crisis in Yemen — driven by conflict, economic shocks, and extreme weather — has once again ranked among the worst in the world, according to a major international report.

What's happening?

The 2025 Global Report on Food Crises, recently released by a group of intergovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies, identified Yemen as one of the sites of the "four most severe nutrition crises" in 2024. The other three were Sudan, Gaza, and Mali.

In these four places, "catastrophic hunger driven by conflict and other factors is hitting record highs, pushing households to the edge of starvation," wrote António Guterres, secretary-general of the UN, in a foreword. 

The report's profile on Yemen also stated that nearly half (48%) of the country's population faced acute food insecurity during a peak period from late 2024 through early 2025. Nearly 17 million Yemenis struggled to access sufficient food during this time.

Why is this food crisis concerning?

Multiple factors compounded hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity in the country last year. According to the report, these included economic circumstances that sharply raised food prices as well as continued conflict between Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government. 

Extreme weather events, intensified by an overheating planet, also played a role in food shortages and rising costs. Heat waves, irregular rainfall, rapid humidity changes, and reduced soil fertility have all hurt farming and ranching, outlet Atalayar noted in June.

The global report explained that heavy rains in March and August 2024 led to flooding that impacted hundreds of thousands of people, damaged over 240,000 acres of crops, increased water contamination and disease, and led to losses of livestock and livelihoods.

While the situation in Yemen has been especially harsh, it also reflects food insecurity and crises worldwide, all too often amplified by extreme weather. 

More than 295 million people in 53 countries and territories faced acute hunger in 2024, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in a summary of the global report. Acute food insecurity and child malnutrition have now risen for six consecutive years, and the number of people facing catastrophic hunger is at its highest since the annual reports began in 2016.

For Yemen, a tragic trend has continued. The Arabian Peninsula nation has now been named a site of one of the worst food crises in each edition of the report.

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What's being done about the food crisis in Yemen?

According to this latest Global Report on Food Crises, international aid to Yemen was limited in 2024 by "funding reductions and a deteriorating humanitarian operating environment." Sudden suspensions of funding in 2025 have further disrupted aid operations in Yemen and other fragile settings.

Meanwhile, the UN has reported on Yemeni initiatives to improve agricultural resilience, ranging from improving water management to promoting hydroponic farming.

Atalayar cited Yemeni researcher Wafaa Al-Sanidar, who called for increasing the use of renewable energy and building reservoirs to make the nation more resilient to the effects of a rapidly warming Earth. Others have called for more research into drought-resistant crops.

More broadly, Secretary-General Guterres wrote that decision-makers should take note of the recent report: "We must summon the funding, innovations, and global solidarity to build the food-secure and climate-resilient future that every person, everywhere, needs and deserves."

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