UN report warns of catastrophic hunger threatening millions of people.

Arabian Sea Newspaper - Special

Arabian Sea - Yemen: A recent UN report classified Yemen as one of four countries facing the worst food crises globally in 2024, along with Sudan, Mali, and the Gaza Strip, warning of catastrophic levels of hunger threatening the lives of millions of Yemenis. The Global Report on Food Crises for 2025, issued by UN agencies and international organizations, indicated that approximately 48% of Yemen's population – nearly 17 million people – faced severe food insecurity between late 2024 and early 2025. The report pointed out that the crisis has been exacerbated by economic deterioration and rising food prices, in addition to the ongoing war waged by the Houthi militia, as well as extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves and floods that have caused significant damage to the agricultural sector. The report indicated that heavy rains in March and August 2024 caused widespread flooding that affected hundreds of thousands of people and damaged more than 240,000 acres of agricultural land, in addition to the outbreak of diseases and the collapse of public health services, which exacerbated the food crisis. Yemen's situation reflects part of a grim global picture, as the report indicated that more than 295 million people in 53 countries suffered from acute hunger last year, at a time when rates of hunger and malnutrition continue to rise for the sixth consecutive year due to escalating climatic, political, and economic crises around the world.