Yemen humanitarian crisis set to worsen in 2026: UN

Julien Harneis, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said he feared the calamitous situation would go under the radar until the death toll mounts.

The picture in Yemen is "very, very concerning", he told reporters in Geneva.

Last year, 19.5 million people in the country needed humanitarian aid -- and the UN's response plan for the country was only 28-percent financed, at $688 million.

"We are expecting things to be much worse in 2026," said Harneis, pointing out that 21 million Yemenis were now in need, and aid was drying up.

He said food insecurity was increasing, particularly on the Red Sea coast, while the health system, assisted by the United Nations and the World Bank for the last 10 years, was "not going to be supported in the way it has been in the past".

He said Yemenis would be "very vulnerable to epidemics" this year.

"My fear is that we won't hear about it until the mortality and the morbidity significantly increases this next year," he added.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States has heavily slashed foreign aid and other key donor countries have been tightening their belts.

Harneis said that for many years, the United States was the biggest donor to Yemen, but "that's no longer the case".

"I am hoping that at least in parts of Yemen, the US government will come back to fund," he said, and also that Gulf countries would step up support.

"A humanitarian crisis in Yemen is a risk to the Arabian peninsula. Cholera, measles and polio cross borders," he warned.

Harneis said the UN was trying to work with NGOs to see if they could plug any of the gaps.

"Children are dying -- and it's going to get worse," he said.

"For 10 years, the UN and humanitarian organisations were able to improve mortality and morbidity," he pointed out.

"With the conjunction we're seeing this year, that's not going to be the case. That is the simple story that everybody needs to understand."
UN response 'hobbled'
Yemen's internationally recognised government is a patchwork of groups held together by their opposition to the Iran-backed Houthis, who ousted them from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and now rule much of the country's north.

The Houthis have been at war with the government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2015, in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

Harneis said the lack of a solution to the conflict was driving needs.

"It's not active fighting, it's not massive displacement, it's not bombing," he said.

"It is the collapse of the economy," the damage to the ports and airports and the disruption of essential services.

"We can take the edge off it, we can save lives but we cannot stop the underlying dynamic which is creating all these needs," he said.

Meanwhile 73 UN staff members are being held in detention in Yemen, some since 2021.

"With these detentions and the seizure of our offices, the UN does not have the conditions to be able to work," Harneis lamented.

"To see our humanitarian response so hobbled is terrifying."