At 53.2 million, internally displaced persons continue to outnumber refugees and more needs to be done to highlight their plight of being ‘internal’ refugees within their own countries.

20 June 2022 – Today marks World Refugee Day and for the first time, the number of people who are experiencing displacement around the world has exceeded 100 million. Out of this figure 53.2 million are those who have fled their homes to other areas within the borders of their country, for fear of their lives mainly because of conflict and violence. In Yemen alone, 4.3 million people have become internally displaced persons (IDPs) leaving behind their lives, at times with the clothes on their backs and many experiencing displacement multiple times.

Now into their Eighth Year of War, 19 million Yemenis, including 2.2 million children under the age of five, will be facing hunger.

25 March 2022 – Tomorrow the people of Yemen will enter their eighth year of living in a country in active conflict. Over the period of 2,555 days and nights, Yemenis have been experiencing a deteriorating economic hardship and loss of income, displacement and a daily struggle to meet their most basic needs. By the end of the year, up to 19 million Yemenis will experience acute malnutrition, including 2.2 million children under five. While the conflict affects all the people of Yemen, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected.

The repercussions of the current global food crisis emanating from the conflict in Ukraine - one of the main suppliers for Yemen - will mean less wheat and oil entering the country and at higher prices, further worsening the situation for more people.

New report shows disturbing trend of more people at threat of famine in Yemen

14 March 2022 – Figures from the newly released Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report confirm the serious concerns felt and foreseen by humanitarian organizations such as CARE in Yemen for 2022. The level of food insecurity and the risk of famine conditions for a higher number of Yemenis are now vivid, inevitable and undeniable.  According to the report, during the period January to May 2022, 17.4 million Yemenis will experience high levels of food insecurity (IPC phases 3 to 5, classified from Crisis to Catastrophe[1]) – amounting to an over 7 per cent increase compared to the previous year. This is expected to rise to 19 million over the second half of the year.

Joint statement

This statement was developed by a group of international aid organizations working in Yemen, including: ACTED, CARE, Danish Refugee Council, Humanity & Inclusion — Handicap International, INTERSOS, Lutheran World Relief, Medecins du Monde (MdM), Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, Polish Humanitarian Action, Save the Children and ZOA.

Aid agencies operating in Yemen are deeply concerned over the humanitarian situation in and around Marib as hostilities continue to escalate resulting in dozens of civilian casualties, including women and children.

In October alone, more than 54 incidents of armed violence affecting civilians in and around Marib were recorded, resulting in over 119 civilian casualties — an increase of more than 230 per cent in civilian casualties recorded in a single month for 2021 in the area. A recent attack on 31 October, hit a religious site, killing and wounding 29 civilians, including students, women and children.[1]

Sana’a’s airport closure for the fifth consecutive year has left stranded at least 32,000 critically ill Yemeni patients in need of life-saving treatment abroad since the first and last medical flights in February last year.

Five years of restrictions imposed on Yemen’s airspace by the Saudi-led coalition is preventing thousands of sick Yemeni civilians from seeking urgent medical treatment outside the country, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and CARE said today. The airport closure is also causing economic losses estimated to be in the billions over the last five years, worsening further an already dire humanitarian situation.

Vital aid funding will be the difference between life and death for 400,000 children in the world’s largest humanitarian crisis

A pledging conference for Yemen on 1 March is a pivotal moment for governments around the world to step up for the Yemeni people, who have already suffered through six years of a man-made catastrophe. With five million people currently teetering on the edge of starvation and over two-thirds of the country’s population in need of humanitarian aid or protection, the situation could not be more urgent, according to 12 aid organisations.

Aid programmes have helped provide vital water, food, health services and shelters for families driven from their homes or living in villages and cities ravaged by the war.

Last year, donors raised only USD$1.35 billion for the aid effort, barely half of the amount pledged in 2019. Since, severe aid cuts have deepened the suffering: some nine million people in Yemen have had their food assistance halved and 6 million people, including three million children, are without clean water and sanitation services during a global pandemic^[1].

18 February 2021 – CARE is extremely concerned for hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) whose safety is being put at risk during the current escalation of fighting in Yemen’s Marib governorate.

Marib already hosted around one million IDPs before violence escalated in January 2020. Since then Marib has experienced periods of heavy fighting, with the highest number of airstrikes across Yemen last year. The UN estimates that 113,000 people have been displaced in the past twelve months, with around 6000 displaced from one district alone in the past ten days; a further 385,000 people could be forced to flee if fighting continues.

CARE and other humanitarian organisations are doing our best to provide lifesaving assistance but the needs in camps and settlements are overwhelming and services for IDPs are extremely limited. Most newly displaced families are fleeing for a second time and lack adequate access to healthcare, water systems and latrines which particularly affects the safety and dignity of women and girls.

CARE urgently calls on all parties to take immediate, comprehensive measures to ease the suffering of Yemenis, including protecting civilians from attack and displacement in Marib and across Yemen by initiating a ceasefire, lifting all restrictions on ports and airports, and renewing inclusive and sustainable peace talks.

A new analysis of the last quarter of this year has shown that 13.5 million people in Yemen face acute food insecurity, including 16,500 people already living in famine conditions.[1] These numbers are likely to increase in the first half of 2021 when more than half of Yemen’s population move into crisis levels of food insecurity. The number of those facing famine could almost triple, according to estimations.

The prolonged conflict  has driven food insecurity to extreme levels. More and more people are being uprooted due to intensifying violence in parts of the country as unemployment rates continue to soar. Food prices are increasingly out of the reach for  large parts of the population due to the continuous depreciation of the Yemeni Riyal.

SANA’A, 14 October 2020 – After almost six years of war, Yemen’s economic ecosystem has been decimated, leaving up to 20 million people food insecure. The combination of armed conflict, COVID-19, and the lack of foreign currency and salary payments has created a precarious situation in which the majority of the population would not be able to survive without humanitarian assistance.

“Economic factors have a direct and devastating impact on the availability and affordability of food,” says Aaron Brent, CARE Yemen Country Director. “Food prices have been rising throughout 2020, adding to the misery of families who were already struggling. “We are seeing an increase in negative coping strategies including selling personal possessions like clothes and furniture, borrowing money, begging and using up savings. The UN has even referred to the ‘spectre of famine’.”