The WFP highlighted in a statement that last November it assisted 12.3 million people in Yemen, hit by a war that has lasted eight years.

According to the WFP, 49 percent of Yemeni households reported inadequate food consumption during that month.

The agency highlighted that in 2022 food costs increased by 21 percent in government-controlled areas and 18 percent in areas held by the Houthi rebels.

A few days ago, the executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russel, denounced that more than 11,000 children died or were injured in the war. The figure is an estimate, because “the number is likely to be much higher,” Russell stressed.

UNICEF highlighted that more than 23.4 million Yemenis, three quarters of the national population, require assistance and protection, and 17.8 million lack access to water, sanitation and hygiene services. According to estimates 2.2 million children are undernourished, including nearly 540,000 children less than five years old suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

The conflict began in 2014, when Houthi rebels took up arms and occupied large swaths of the country, including the capital, Sanaa. The following year an Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, intervened in the conflict in support of then-President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

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