Displacement in Yemen at highest level since 2022 truce, UN warns; 70,000 children forced from homes

NEW YORK CITY: More than 138,000 people, over half of them children, have been driven from their homes in Yemen since the beginning of August, the UN said on Friday. It is the worst wave of displacement in the country since the 2022 truce. UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric warned that women and children are bearing the brunt of the escalating hostilities, and nearly 3,000 pregnant women among the displaced had limited or no access to life-saving care. 'Some 200 of them are expected to give birth this month alone,' he said, adding that the organizations providing support for women and girls had run out of dignity kits and were in urgent need of thousands more. The fresh fighting in the country is also compounding an already dire nutritional crisis. Even before the latest escalation, more than 2.2 million children under the age of 5 across Yemen were acutely malnourished, more than 500,000 of whom were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of the condition. 'Yemen's children are facing horrific conditions,' Dujarric said. 'The current fighting is escalating those risks.' Mobile nutrition teams deployed by UNICEF screened nearly 2,900 children in recent weeks and found more than one in four were acutely malnourished, and over 200 were suffering from severe acute malnutrition, he added. The wider healthcare system in the country is also buckling. Of more than 5,400 facilities the World Health Organization was able to assess, only three in five remained fully functional, Dujarric said. He added that the UN and its partners had reached 100,000 people with assistance since Aug. 1, but warned that 'supplies are running low, additional funding is needed and safe, sustained access is urgently needed.' Meanwhile, more than 137,000 students are out of education after almost 250 schools were forced to close. The resurgence of violence was also pushing Yemenis to flee across borders; more than 3,500 people made the perilous sea crossing to Djibouti between Sept. 10 and 21, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration. 'More are coming over now,' Dujarric said, citing agency data. The UN renewed its appeal for all parties involved in the conflict 'to protect civilians and protect civilian infrastructure, including ambulances and hospitals,' and to allow people safe passage in search of safety.