Funding cuts will push Yemen towards deeper humanitarian crisis in 2026, UN warns
The United Nations warned that funding cuts are pushing Yemen’s humanitarian crisis towards a dangerous reversal, with rising hunger, disease risks and millions more in need of aid.
The UN has warned that the humanitarian situation in Yemen is worsening and that gains made to tackle malnutrition and health would go into reverse due to funding cuts.
"We are expecting things to be much worse in 2026," Julien Harneis, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
Some 21 million people will need humanitarian assistance this year, an increase from 19.5 million the previous year, according to the UN. The situation has been aggravated by economic collapse and disruption of essential services, including health and education, and political uncertainty, Harneis said.
Funding Yemen traditionally received from Western countries was now being cut back, Herneis said, pointing to hopes for more help from Gulf countries.
"It is certainly very clear that they're (Saudi Arabia) very concerned and that they do want to do more, so we will explore that with them."
The US slashed its aid spending this year, and leading Western donors also pared back help as they pivoted to raise defence spending, triggering a funding crunch for the UN.
Yemen has been the focus of one of the world's largest humanitarian operations in a decade of civil war that disrupted food supplies. The country has also been a source of heightened tensions in recent months between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"Children are dying and it's going to get worse," Harneis said. Food insecurity is projected to worsen across the country, with higher rates of malnutrition anticipated, he stated.
"For 10 years, the UN and humanitarian organisations were able to improve mortality and improve morbidity... this year, that's not going to be the case."
Yemen grows more vulnerable to epidemics
He said Yemen’s humanitarian crisis threatened the region with diseases like measles and polio that could cross borders.
In 2025, $680 million (about €620 million) was afforded to the UN in Yemen, about 28% of the intended target, Harneis said.
The health system, supported by the UN and the World Bank for the last decade, was going to lose funding and the country was going to be very vulnerable to epidemics, Harneis stated.
UN operations are limited to government-held areas, with UN agencies unable to help Houthi-held areas, which make up about 70 percent of humanitarian needs, Harneis said. Staff security is worsening, with 73 UN colleagues now detained since 2021.
In September, the UN said it had relocated the base of its resident coordinator for Yemen to Aden, more than a week after at least 18 UN personnel were detained in the capital Sanaa, which the Houthis control.
"To see our humanitarian response so hobbled is terrifying," Harneis stated.