Of nearly 2,900 children screened, 200 were classified as suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the most serious category, UNICEF said on Friday. The agency described the screening as a snapshot from places its teams can reach, rather than a complete picture of conditions across the country.
UNICEF Country Representative in Yemen Akhil Iyer told reporters in Geneva by video link from Aden that teams were recording more cases each day in areas where internally displaced people had recently arrived. The agency said about 71,000 children had been forced from their homes during the previous three weeks.
The renewed displacement is unfolding as Yemen’s conflict escalates after a period in which a 2022 truce had largely frozen the fighting. Violence has flared along former front lines, including around Taiz in the southwest. UNICEF also cited a humanitarian emergency that has displaced more than 133,000 people, some of whom have crossed the Red Sea to Africa.
For the country as a whole, UNICEF projects that 2.2 million children under five will suffer acute malnutrition this year, including more than half a million expected to face severe acute malnutrition. The agency’s latest screening figures show the scale of need in areas reached by its teams; they do not capture children in places that remain inaccessible.