YEMEN faces its worst food crisis since 2022, an aid group warned on Monday.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Yemen — one of the world’s poorest nations — is entering a dangerous new phase of food shortages with more than half the country’s 18 million people expected to face worsening hunger during 2026.

The warning follows analysis under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) hunger monitoring system that showed an additional one million people at risk of life threatening hunger.

The assessment also predicts pockets of famine affecting more than 40,000 people across four districts within the coming months.

Years of war have caused mass displacement and have limited access to jobs as well as basic health and nutrition services.

By the end of last year, the international humanitarian response in Yemen was at a decade-long low with less than 25 per cent funded. 

Life saving nutrition programmes received under 10 per cent of the funding required, according to the IRC.

The IRC said in a statement: “This rapid deterioration — driven by catastrophic humanitarian funding cuts, climate shocks, economic collapse and compounded by recent insecurity — calls for urgent action to reverse the unfolding catastrophe.”

Caroline Sekyewa, the IRC’s director in Yemen, warned that the speed of decline is alarming.

She said: “The people of Yemen still remember when they didn’t know where their next meal would come from. I fear we are returning to this dark chapter again.

“What distinguishes the current deterioration is its speed and trajectory.”

Ms Sekyewa said that many families were now being forced to make desperate choices.

“Food insecurity in Yemen is no longer a looming risk; it is a daily reality forcing parents into impossible choices,” saying that some parents have been forced to collect wild plants to feed themselves and their children.

But Ms Sekyewa said the crisis was entirely preventable.

She said: “Yemen’s food security crisis is not inevitable,” urging immediate additional funding from donors.

Yemen is now site of a proxy conflict between neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Presidential Leadership Council, backed by the Saudis, wants to regain control over all of Yemen and to defeat the Houthi-led government that controls most of the country.

The UAE, which backs the Southern Transitional Council, supports the idea of restoring South Yemen as an independent state, as it was between 1967 and 1990. 

Abu Dhabi aims to maintain close ties to Yemen’s south, with its access to key shipping routes along the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.