Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
- As Yemen enters its tenth year of conflict, the conditions affecting millions of children remain deeply challenging, their humanitarian needs immense. In 2024, the situation for children worsened due to trade disruptions, high inflation in areas controlled by the internationally recognized government, the banking crisis, reduced humanitarian aid amid global economic challenges and multiple crises. These factors have deepened the struggles faced by the country’s vulnerable population.
- In 2025, around 500,000 children will require treatment for severe wasting; and 17.8 million people will lack access to basic health care, with disease outbreaks compounded by poor WASH access for 17.4 million people. Additionally, 4.5 million children are out of school, with thousands of schools damaged or destroyed, and 7.4 million children urgently need protection services amid rising child labour, child marriage, gender-based violence and recruitment by armed groups.
- To prevent further deterioration, UNICEF is appealing for $212 million to deliver life-saving aid to 8 million people, including 5.2 million children.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS
As the conflict in Yemen reaches its tenth year in 2025, the humanitarian needs in Yemen are not abating, with 18.2 million people, including 9.8 million children, urgently requiring assistance. Despite international efforts, the lack of a political solution to Yemen's crisis is worsening the situation for the population. With 4.5 million people displaced and millions more affected by the conflict, the toll on the population is steadily increasing. Meanwhile, the impacts of climate change, including flooding, droughts and recurrent outbreaks of such diseases as cholera, are adding to the difficulties of children and families.
Socioeconomic conditions in Yemen deteriorated in 2023–2024 due to declining remittances, coupled with trade disruptions, fuel shortages, high inflation, the banking sector crisis and reduced humanitarian aid. The World Bank estimates Yemen’s real gross domestic product will shrink by 1 per cent in 2024, after a 2 per cent decline in 2023. The economy has contracted by a cumulative 54 per cent since 2015, leaving most Yemenis living in extreme poverty.
Currently, 17 million people are food insecure, 4.7 million of them at crisis levels. Despite projection to treat 100 per cent of the planned 556,000 children with severe wasting in 2024, an additional 483,000 children are expected to require treatment in 2025. The survival of Yemen’s children is at stake, with large-scale interventions urgently needed.
About 17.8 million people (51 per cent children) in Yemen lack adequate health care. Despite UNICEF’s efforts in 2024, many health facilities remain non-functional. By October 2024, Yemen faced 19,979 cases of measles and rubella, with 183 deaths. Additionally, 186,000 suspected cholera cases and 680 deaths were reported across 22 governorates in 2024, with children under age 5 representing percent of cases and 18 percent of deaths. 16 Vaccination efforts are severely hampered due to misiniformation, particularly in the north. Yemen is home to 580,000 zero-dose children, or 35 per cent of all zero-dose children in the Middle East and North Africa region. Furthermore, 17.4 million people in Yemen lack access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, leaving many children vulnerable to cholera and other waterborne diseases.
The protection crisis is alarming, with negative coping mechanisms like child marriage, child labour, gender-based violence, recruitment by armed groups and mental health issues still common. About 7.4 million children, including those with disabilities, need protection services. Around 6.2 million children require educational support, with 1 in 4 children out of school, and there a 44 per cent school drop-out rate, linked to child labour. Since 2015, at least 2,424 schools have been destroyed, and nearly 200,000 teachers’ salaries have gone unpaid since 2023, severely affecting the quality of education.