Hunger and disease spread in Yemen as Houthi and government forces clash
Fighting in Yemen between the Iran-backed Houthis and government forces backed by Saudi Arabia resumed this summer, ending four years of relative calm after a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in 2022.
At least 959 people were killed and 4,207 injured across 10 of Yemen's governorates between 6 August and 2 October, figures from Yemen's Ministry of Health and Population show.
More than 5.2 million people had already been internally displaced when the fighting intensified.
The renewed conflict has added to an already severe humanitarian crisis.
More than half of Yemen's roughly 41 million people need humanitarian aid, more than 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished and nearly 19 million people lack access to healthcare.
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Dwindling aid
Years of cuts to international funding have made Yemen one of the world's three most under-funded crises. The UN's humanitarian response plan for the country received only 25 percent of the funding required in 2025 and 20 percent in 2026.
Oxfam has worked in Yemen since 1983. Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, who leads the charity's campaigns on humanitarian aid and development funding, said the crisis was being largely overlooked.
"The situation of Yemenis remains forgotten by the international community, and that is almost the saddest thing about the current situation. It is all the more serious because new needs are exploding," he told RFI.
Food supplies are especially vulnerable because Yemen imports around 90 percent of what it consumes.
"The impact on food supplies of this latest surge in violence could be absolutely devastating," Matthew Hollingworth, assistant executive director for programme operations at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), told journalists in Geneva.
"Hunger in Yemen is accelerating before our eyes."
The UN agency is trying to scale up its response, but Hollingworth said it was doing so "with very limited resources and access" – raising fears of a much wider food crisis beyond Yemen's borders.
The WFP says it needs $109 million to provide emergency food and nutrition aid to as many as 1.5 million people, and around $158 million to maintain food aid, cash transfers, nutrition support and school meals for 2.4 million people until March 2027.
Hospitals at breaking point
Rising casualties are putting further pressure on an already weakened health system.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said only 60 percent of hospitals were fully operational, with limited capacity for trauma surgery, blood transfusions and intensive care.
The pressure has since intensified, with 60 percent of health facilities now overwhelmed, aid group Doctors of the World said.
At Al-Gamhouria hospital in Aden, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) treated more than 60 wounded patients from Yemen's west coast between 10 and 26 September.
"Many of them require emergency surgery, blood transfusions, close monitoring and long-term care," MSF said.
Fighting has also increased the risk that diseases already present in Yemen will spread. WHO described measles as "particularly concerning" and also reported suspected cholera cases and more than 9,000 cases of dengue fever.
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Families on the run
Thousands of families, mostly women and children, are once again being forced to flee. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since fighting resumed, many of them several times, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.
Another 3,800 people have fled to Djibouti.
More than 57,000 children were displaced during the first two weeks of September, while 243 schools closed or suspended classes, affecting more than 137,000 pupils, UN children's agency Unicef reported.
"The situation is extremely complicated, with attacks multiplying on different front lines," Oxfam's Jandeaux told RFI. "This has also led to an explosion in the number of displaced people in an extremely short period of time."
Displaced families are living in makeshift camps with limited access to food, drinking water, sanitation and healthcare. Many are arriving in areas already facing catastrophic hunger, while attacks make it harder for aid workers to get around.
"We now need to respond to new needs on top of existing needs," Jandeaux said. A doctor examines a child at a camp for displaced people near Aden, Yemen, on 14 September 2026.
Taiz under pressure
Taiz governorate, in the south-west, was already hosting many displaced people and has taken in more since the summer.
The Houthi rebels cut a key road linking Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, with Aden, the government's stronghold, on Sunday.
Their forces, which now surround Taiz, seized an area and supply route south of the city, preventing the government, whose forces hold most of Taiz, from sending in supplies and reinforcements.
"The key question is whether the Houthis can keep control of the roads and gradually tighten the noose around the city," Ahmed Nagi of conflict prevention organisation International Crisis Group told French news agency AFP.
"If they succeed, the humanitarian and military situation could deteriorate very quickly."
Everyone in Taiz governorate is now resorting to harmful ways of coping, such as reducing meals or adults eating less so children can be fed, Oxfam said. The charity is concentrating its resources on urgent needs including water, hygiene and sanitation.
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'Advance towards Sanaa'
Government troops, who had suffered setbacks in recent weeks despite Saudi support, launched a counter-offensive this week.
The Houthis attacked the town of Mocha and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, in early September, seizing the strategic waterway. Much of the fighting is now around the strait, where government forces have advanced but control remains disputed.
"Our goal is to defeat the Houthis and implement our plan to advance towards the capital, Sanaa, which they control," Yemen's ambassador to France, Riad Yassin Abdallah, told RFI.
Government forces now hold Perim island, in the middle of the strait, he added. The government has also opened new fronts in the Al-Bayda and Marib regions.
Coordination between the various pro-government forces has always been difficult, but they are now united behind a single goal, he acknowledged.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen's president have urged United States President Donald Trump to join the fight, but Washington has so far stayed out of the conflict.
Yemenis can free the country themselves, though it may take longer without direct US intervention, Abdallah said. He called on the US and Europe to provide political support and take a firmer stance against Iran, which backs the Houthis.
Southern Yemen, particularly Aden, is now bearing most of the humanitarian burden, the ambassador warned, appealing to the international community, aid groups and neighbouring countries for support.
"If humanitarian aid does not increase in the coming months, the situation will unfortunately worsen and become even more difficult for everyone."
With diplomatic efforts to settle the regional conflict stalled, aid organisations are urging governments and major donors to protect civilians and ensure safe humanitarian access.
WFP warned that without a rapid international response, the outlook for Yemen would become "very bleak".
For Jandeaux, part of the problem is that Yemen has come to be seen as a country that is in crisis and always will be.
"In reality, hundreds of thousands of people are trying to hold on and fighting every day for their survival, and unfortunately they are not getting the attention they deserve."
This story was adapted from the original version in French by Anne Bernas and includes additional reporting from this interview with the Yemeni ambassador to France.