# Yemen Civil War
- Canonical dossier: [Web edition]()
- Markdown edition: [Plain-text edition]()
- Issue: Issue 004
- Rubric: Renewed War / Hunger
- Byline: Totally Fine Foundation editorial desk
- Reading time: 11 min
- Last reviewed: 2026-11-06
> Yemen's 2022 ceasefire largely held until the summer of 2026, UN News reports; then it broke. After Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport on 13 July, ACLED reports, the Houthis retaliated against Saudi targets, and Saudi forces struck the Hodeidah port area on 24 July; Houthi attacks on government camps followed on 6 August, and in September the Houthis took the port of Mokha. On 9 October the UN Special Envoy told the Security Council that Yemen had slid back into full-scale war. UNHCR counts more than 250,000 people displaced between 1 August and 17 October. The emergency that ran beneath the ceasefire is still there: more than 22 million people in need, a hunger map with its northern half switched off, suspected cholera cases tripling in three weeks, and 72 UN staff held by the Houthi authorities.
## Cover
- Kicker: Field dossier / MENA / renewed war
- Cover lines: The ceasefire held until the summer. The UN envoy now calls it full-scale war. / More than 250,000 people displaced between 1 August and 17 October / 18.3 million acutely food insecure — and the sharpest count still leaves out the north / Suspected cholera cases tripled in three weeks as the fighting spread / Seventy-two UN staff held by the Houthi authorities, 37 of them from WFP
#### Hero visual provenance
- Caption: Displaced children's schoolwork: more than five million Yemenis were already displaced before the 2026 escalation added a new wave — counts kept strictly apart from every other figure in this file.
- Alt text: Displaced children's schoolwork laid out in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
## Metrics
### 22M+ — People in need, 2026 (national)
- Category: humanitarian need
- Caveat: OCHA HNRP 2026 (CRS and HRW cite 22.3M), March 2026, before the escalation; 12M targeted, 9.4M prioritized — targeted is a resourcing figure, not the need. National, not government-area.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [US Congressional Research Service (with Security Council Report and CFR) — Yemen — In Focus IF12581]() (`yem-crs-2026`); [Human Rights Watch — Human Rights Watch briefing: Human rights in Yemen and the release of detained humanitarian workers, 26 August 2026]() (`yem-hrw-briefing-2026-08-26`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A plan, not a census.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: more than 22 million in need.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### 231,991 — People displaced since 1 August 2026
- Category: displacement
- Caveat: IOM DTM figures cited by OCHA, 1 August to 14 October 2026. UNHCR counts more than 250,000 to 17 October. Different periods and methods — never merged, and counted separately from the 5.2 million displaced before the escalation, though some people have been displaced more than once.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`); [UNHCR — UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026]() (`yem-unhcr-update-5`)
### 7,173, including 1,282 deaths — Casualties recorded in government-held areas since 6 August 2026
- Category: human cost
- Caveat: Casualty Register of the health ministry's Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) in Aden, covering government-held areas, to 11 October 2026, in the health response's situation report #7 (13 October). Areas under the de facto authorities are not accessible, so the report says all figures should be read as a minimum; not split by civilian or combatant. On 2 October the health ministry, via WHO, had reported 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries from 10 governorates. OHCHR-verified civilian counts are smaller subsets.
**Source trail:** [Yemen health response (situation report posted on ReliefWeb) — Conflict Escalation in Yemen - Situation Report #7 (Reporting period: 3 – 11 October 2026 | Issued: 13 October 2026)]() (`yem-who-sitrep-7`); [World Health Organization (EMRO) — WHO: Critical funding gap for the health response in Yemen, 6 October 2026]() (`yem-who-emro-2026-10-06`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`)
### 18.3M — Acute food insecurity
- Category: food security
- Caveat: National (OCHA). Separately ~5M in Crisis+ / 1.4M Emergency in government-controlled areas only (WFP/IPC, 47% of the IRG population); WFP's activities in Houthi areas are suspended since Sep 2025 (WFP annual report) — the north is a data gap. WFP reported on 2 October that 74% of monitored households in accessible areas could not meet basic food needs. Never present the IRG figure as national.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns hunger is surging in Yemen as conflict displaces thousands, 2 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-02`); [World Food Programme — WFP Yemen - Yemen Annual Country Report 2025 - 2025 Overview]() (`yem-wfp-acr-2025`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The hunger map has two numbers measuring different countries.
- Alt text: Therapeutic-food distribution in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### 8,034 — Suspected cholera cases, 2026
- Category: health / disease
- Caveat: WHO, to epidemiological week 39 of 2026, with 27 deaths; weekly cases tripled from 217 (week 36) to 647 (week 39). Suspected, not confirmed. In December 2024 WHO put Yemen at 35% of the global cholera burden — a 2024 figure, kept apart.
**Source trail:** [World Health Organization — WHO: Cholera cases surge as conflict in Yemen displaces over 200,000 people, 13 October 2026]() (`yem-who-cholera-2026-10-13`); [World Health Organization — Cholera burden: WHO statement, 23 December 2024]() (`yem-who-cholera-2024`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Disease runs into a health system at partial power.
- Alt text: A rural health centre interior in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### 72 — UN staff held in Houthi detention
- Category: access / protection
- Caveat: October 2026, per the UN Special Envoy (9 October) and WFP (14 October); 37 are WFP staff. WFP put the count at 73, 38 of them WFP staff, on 2 October, and announced the release of a staff member on 5 October. HRW counted 73 in February 2026 and 69 in December 2025, including staff detained in 2021 and 2023.
**Source trail:** [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`); [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`); [Human Rights Watch — Human Rights Watch briefing: Human rights in Yemen and the release of detained humanitarian workers, 26 August 2026]() (`yem-hrw-briefing-2026-08-26`); [UN News — UN chief calls for immediate release of 118 detained UN staff]() (`yem-ohchr-detention-2026`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns hunger is surging in Yemen as conflict displaces thousands, 2 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-02`); [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The war counted in people the UN cannot reach.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: UN staff detained in Yemen, March 2026 count.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### ~21% — 2026 appeal funded
- Category: funding
- Caveat: Of a US$2.16bn ask, as reported by UNHCR on 22 September 2026 and cited by the IFRC; OCHA reported 12.7% in May. Rolling on FTS.
**Source trail:** [IFRC — IFRC Emergency Appeal: Yemen Population Movement (MDRYE018), 1 October 2026]() (`yem-ifrc-appeal-mdrye018`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Yemen Humanitarian Update, April 2026]() (`yem-ocha-update-2026-04`); [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`)
## The war that came back.
### The truce that broke
For four years Yemen's war was quieter than it had been. The UN-mediated truce of April 2022 cut reported fatalities by 85 per cent in its first two months, ACLED recorded, and although the formal agreement expired on 2 October 2022, a 2022 ceasefire largely held until the summer of 2026, UN News reports. The emergency did not leave: OCHA's 2026 plan counts more than 22 million people — over half the country — in need, and asks US$2.16 billion.
In 2026 the quiet ended. On 13 July, ACLED reports, Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa International Airport and the Houthis immediately retaliated — their campaign against Saudi territory began that day with a missile fired at Abha airport — and on 24 July Saudi forces struck the Hodeidah port area; on 6 August simultaneous Houthi attacks on government camps in Hadramawt and Marib killed at least 30 soldiers. In September the Houthis swept down the Red Sea coast and took the port of Mokha; they targeted Riyadh on 19 September. The government announced a counter-offensive on 5 October, and on 9 October the UN Special Envoy told the Security Council that Yemen had slid back into full-scale war.
The escalation of conflict in western Yemen is reportedly pushing people across the country's borders, with thousands fleeing by sea to Djibouti. As of 17 October 2026, 3,836 Yemeni nationals had arrived in Djibouti, half of them children, including 282 under age five, according to an IOM release dated 23 October 2026. Most arrivals reportedly cited worsening insecurity as their reason for leaving. The release also noted an unconfirmed account that several boats had to land before reaching their destination after running out of fuel.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries had been reported from 10 governorates as of 2 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — ACLED: Violence in Yemen during the UN-mediated truce, April–October 2022]() (`yem-acled-2022`); [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`); [ACLED — ACLED: Houthi gains around Bab al-Mandab raise risks to Red Sea shipping and global oil markets (1 October 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-10-01`); [Médecins Sans Frontières — MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026]() (`yem-msf-2026-10-08`); [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`); [ACLED — The UN-Mediated Truce in Yemen: Impacts of the First Two Months]() (`yem-acled-2022-2m`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: OCHA's 2026 plan, written before the escalation: more than 22 million people in need nationally.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: more than 22 million in need, US$2.16 billion asked.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Displacement and the siege of Taiz
The fighting has set people moving again. IOM's tracking, cited by OCHA, records 231,991 people displaced between 1 August and 14 October; UNHCR counts more than 250,000 to 17 October, with Taiz hosting the largest share. In government-held areas the health ministry's emergency operations centre had recorded 7,173 casualties since 6 August, including 1,282 deaths, by 11 October, and the daily toll doubled in early October, the health response's situation report says — a minimum, since areas under the de facto authorities are not accessible. OHCHR's verified counts are smaller and narrower: 55 civilians killed in 94 incidents in OCHA's latest reporting period, and 32 civilians, 14 of them children, confirmed killed across Taiz governorate.
Taiz is the pressure point. The Houthis took the last main road between the city and government-held areas at the start of October; since 8 October humanitarian partners have been unable to move between Ta'iz City and the southern districts. WFP says it cannot reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz; with communities cut off on the West Coast in early September, 800,000 people are now beyond its reach.
De facto authorities have encircled Ta'iz and closed the only supply route linking the city to Aden. Fighting between Huthi and government forces is reportedly intensifying and moving closer to densely populated areas of Ta'iz. Under international law, the Huthis reportedly have an obligation to ensure that aid and essential goods for civilians in need are not impeded. Ta'iz reportedly hosts Yemen's largest number of internally displaced people.
An escalation of hostilities along Yemen's west coast, beginning on 1 August 2026, has caused civilian displacement. According to IOM Yemen DTM, on 20 September 2026 it recorded an increase of 2,406 individual IDPs compared with the previous report, bringing displacement between 1 August and 20 September 2026 to approximately 128,382 individuals (approximately 21,397 households). According to IOM DTM Yemen Update #9, dated 21 September 2026, cumulative recorded displacement stood at 129,438 individuals as of 20 September 2026; this differs from the approximately 128,382 individuals reported by IOM Yemen DTM for the same date.
International Medical Corps's Situation Report #5, published on 22 October 2026, reported that IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix had recorded 251,125 people (41,853 households) displaced across 10 governorates between 1 August and 17 October 2026; International Medical Corps said the figure represents an increase of approximately 27% from the previous International Medical Corps report.
According to IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix, 271,020 people (45,170 households) were displaced between 1 January and 17 October 2026. Separately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates in Sana'a said approximately 80,000 households were displaced, according to a statement reported on 28 October 2026.
According to UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh, speaking at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 30 October 2026, escalating insecurity, economic collapse, depleting resources and severe humanitarian access constraints are leaving tens of thousands of refugees in Yemen with nowhere safe to turn. Thousands of people continue to risk dangerous sea crossings from the Horn of Africa to Yemen despite the intensifying conflict, according to UNHCR.
Kharaz refugee camp in Lahj governorate, southwestern Yemen, hosts around 9,500 refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia, according to a UNHCR statement dated 30 October 2026. The camp reportedly lies in a government-controlled area tens of kilometres from the fighting. No refugee casualties had been verified there as of 30 October 2026, according to UNHCR. Nearby shelling has reportedly disrupted services at Kharaz and led to movement restrictions. Partners reportedly distributed food inside the camp in coordination with local authorities, and health assistance and water provision reportedly continue.
According to IOM data, more than 268,000 people had been displaced within Yemen as of 23 October 2026, almost all of them since the start of September 2026. The IOM release of 23 October 2026 reported that displaced families were located in 62 districts across ten governorates, reaching as far east as Al Maharah.
Lahj governorate was hosting about 67,000 displaced people, according to the IOM release of 23 October 2026. In Aden, the number of displaced people more than doubled after 7 October 2026 and exceeded 42,000, according to the same release.
International Medical Corps' situation report of 5 November 2026 puts displacement across Yemen at 319,356 people from 53,226 families, an increase of about 27% over its previous report. IOM Yemen DTM's snapshot covering 1 August to 6 October 2026 located 57% of displacement linked to the escalation on the west coast in Ta'iz (114,708), 21% in Lahj (42,264) and 10% in Aden (20,814).
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`); [UNHCR — UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026]() (`yem-unhcr-update-5`); [World Health Organization (EMRO) — WHO: Critical funding gap for the health response in Yemen, 6 October 2026]() (`yem-who-emro-2026-10-06`); [UN News — Yemen war continues to force families from homes amid hunger and disease]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-20`); [UN News — Yemen: Houthi siege, cholera outbreak and aid cuts put civilians in the crosshairs]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-13`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`); [Yemen health response (situation report posted on ReliefWeb) — Conflict Escalation in Yemen - Situation Report #7 (Reporting period: 3 – 11 October 2026 | Issued: 13 October 2026)]() (`yem-who-sitrep-7`)
### A hunger map split in two
The most important thing about Yemen's hunger figures is that there are two of them, measuring different countries. Nationally, OCHA puts 18.3 million people in acute food insecurity. The sharper recent classification — nearly 5 million in Crisis or worse, 47 per cent of the population, with 1.4 million at Emergency level — describes only the government-controlled areas, because the World Food Programme's activities in Houthi-controlled areas are suspended — since September 2025, by WFP's own annual report.
The north, where much of the population lives, has become a data-and-access blind spot rather than a lower number. Where WFP can still look, the picture is worsening: monitoring it reported on 2 October found 74 per cent of households in accessible areas unable to meet their basic food needs, a record for the year. Present the ~5 million as national and you misread the crisis; present it without the northern gap and the north drops out of the count.
Road closures and insecurity are preventing vital supplies, including fuel, from entering Ta'iz and surrounding areas. Blocked humanitarian aid and restricted access to essential supplies are putting access to food, water and healthcare at grave risk. Commodity prices in Ta'iz have reportedly multiplied as a consequence of the closure and resulting supply restrictions. The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen reportedly said on 20 October 2026 that as of that date the health system in Ta'iz is close to collapse, with shortages threatening hospital energy supplies and medical oxygen and putting hundreds of patients at risk.
According to Insecurity Insight's report covering 1 August to 22 September 2026, at least 24 incidents damaged farms, fishing and other food-security assets on Yemen's west coast. The hostilities have reportedly also affected education, food and water systems, damaged transport routes and reduced humanitarian access; insecurity, looting and restrictions are reported to be hampering the humanitarian response.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns hunger is surging in Yemen as conflict displaces thousands, 2 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-02`); [World Food Programme — WFP Yemen - Yemen Annual Country Report 2025 - 2025 Overview]() (`yem-wfp-acr-2025`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Two numbers, measuring different countries.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: national 18.3M vs government-area ~5M food insecure.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Cholera returns with the fighting
The war left a health system running at partial power: OCHA reports 59.3 per cent of facilities fully functional, and WHO's 2026 appeal adds that just one in five can provide maternal and child health services. In a statement dated December 2024, WHO called Yemen the country with the highest cholera burden in the world — 35 per cent of the global caseload, on 249,900 suspected cases and 861 deaths through the first eleven months of that year.
The counts since belong to their own periods: 87,566 cases from 1 January to 26 October 2025, and 339,371 suspected cases cumulatively since March 2024, a multi-year figure. In 2026 it is rising again amid the displacement: WHO reports suspected cases tripling in three weeks, from 217 in epidemiological week 36 to 647 in week 39, and 8,034 suspected cases with 27 deaths so far this year.
Insecurity Insight's report records at least 11 incidents affecting hospitals, clinics and medical staff on Yemen's west coast between 1 August and 22 September 2026, including repeated strikes on the same medical complex and the obstruction of ambulances, which strained emergency and referral care. The report calls for stronger protection of civilian services and humanitarian operations and for better monitoring of the cumulative effects of the hostilities.
**Source trail:** [World Health Organization — Cholera burden: WHO statement, 23 December 2024]() (`yem-who-cholera-2024`); [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — Yemen: Cholera Outbreak, March 2024 onward (ReliefWeb disaster page)]() (`yem-reliefweb-cholera-2024`); [World Health Organization — WHO: Cholera cases surge as conflict in Yemen displaces over 200,000 people, 13 October 2026]() (`yem-who-cholera-2026-10-13`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`); [World Health Organization — Yemen: WHO Health Emergency Appeal 2026]() (`yem-who-appeal-2026`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A health system barely three-fifths working.
- Alt text: A rural health centre interior in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The aid workers who cannot leave
The crisis also reaches the people sent to answer it. The Houthis began a campaign of arrests targeting UN staff and civil society on 31 May 2024, Human Rights Watch documents. The count has moved in snapshots — 69 UN staff by December 2025, 73 by February 2026, all Yemeni nationals according to HRW — and in October WFP and the UN Special Envoy put it at 72, after one release; 37 of them are WFP staff. UN News reported in March that 118 UN staff were detained worldwide, up from 52 a year earlier, with Yemen the single largest concentration.
A World Food Programme aid worker died in Houthi custody on 11 February 2025, HRW reports. Separately, the ICRC said on 17 October 2026 that authorities in Sana'a had released 159 people detained in connection with the current conflict. The detentions are recorded here as the monitors recorded them — attributed, and not turned into a verdict.
**Source trail:** [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`); [Amnesty International — Yemen — detentions, deaths in custody and unfair trials]() (`yem-amnesty-2026`); [Human Rights Watch — Human Rights Watch briefing: Human rights in Yemen and the release of detained humanitarian workers, 26 August 2026]() (`yem-hrw-briefing-2026-08-26`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`); [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`); [UN News — UN chief calls for immediate release of 118 detained UN staff]() (`yem-ohchr-detention-2026`); [International Committee of the Red Cross — ICRC supports release of 159 detainees in Sana'a, 17 October 2026]() (`yem-icrc-2026-10-17`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A count kept as a trajectory, not a single number.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: detention trajectory of UN staff in Yemen, 2024 to 2026.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### How to read a war that came back
The figures here are kept in separate columns, each with its date. The national need is OCHA's — 22 million-plus, 18.3 million acutely food insecure — and it is a plan written before the escalation. The government-area hunger figure is the WFP's and covers only the south. The displacement since August has three counts — IOM's, UNHCR's and the figure relayed by WHO — and they are not merged. The casualty totals are the health authorities'; OHCHR's verified figures are subsets.
The war's cumulative dead still have no single agreed number. A United Nations report in November 2021 projected the toll at 377,000 by the end of that year, direct and indirect deaths combined; it is a model, not a count. This dossier publishes it as history, adds nothing from 2026 to it, and merges none of the columns.
The FAO bulletin published on 21 October 2026 reports that, by 20 October 2026, more than 255,000 people had been internally displaced since the escalation began. According to the bulletin, the newly displaced population was concentrated primarily in Taiz, Lahj, and Aden governorates, accounting for 48%, 25%, and 5%, respectively. The bulletin also reports that 3.1 million people had been displaced previously.
The FAO Yemen Market and Trade Bulletin published on 21 October 2026 reports that 18.3 million people in Yemen were facing acute food insecurity, and more than half the population was in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. According to the bulletin, Yemen's acute food-security crisis is attributed to import dependency, rising prices, humanitarian-funding deficits, and severe climate impacts.
The same bulletin published on 21 October 2026 reports that territorial shifts, insecurity, and access restrictions disrupted trade and import flows and doubled transit times. It also reports that palm-oil prices had increased by up to 17% year on year.
According to a partially confirmed UNFPA report dated 16 October 2026, escalating hostilities in Taiz had severed access to lifesaving care for more than 147,600 women and girls of childbearing age. The same report stated that only 5 of 27 designated emergency maternal and neonatal care hospitals in Taiz city were partially functioning, and that more than 13,100 pregnant women in Taiz city were unable to access maternal health services, including 1,500 expected to give birth within the following two weeks. UNFPA also estimated on 16 October 2026 that at least 500 pregnant women in Taiz would require emergency obstetric and newborn care and could face life-threatening complications without immediate intervention, and reported that nearly 75 percent of protection-from-violence services for women and girls across Taiz Governorate, including safe spaces and shelters, had been suspended.
According to a partially confirmed WHO report dated 22 October 2026, 42 health facilities in Taiz city were experiencing acute shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines or medical supplies. The same report stated that more than 1,110 people with kidney failure required daily dialysis sessions in Taiz, 192 patients were receiving intensive care and 154 newborns were in incubators, and that hospitals and ambulances in Taiz required more than 156,000 litres of fuel per month to maintain operations.
According to the Yemen HEOC register, as reported in the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, 8,513 casualties (6,939 injured, 1,574 deaths) were recorded by 2026-10-19, an increase of 1,340 during the eight days ending 2026-10-19. The register recorded 428 casualties on 2026-10-19, the highest single-day total reported that month; Shabwah's Jardan district accounted for 205 casualties, including 47 deaths, and Lahj accounted for 140. Deaths accounted for 21.8% of casualties during the reporting period ending 2026-10-19, compared with 18.5% cumulatively.
According to IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix, as reported in the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, 256,591 displaced people (42,764 households) were counted in Yemen as of 2026-10-19, up from 201,217 people on 2026-10-07.
According to the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, the main Haygat Al-Abd road was cut and 42 facilities in Taiz city reported severe shortages of medicines, fuel, oxygen, blood and reagents. According to the same situation report, the Joint Medical Emergency Committee estimated that US$624,900 was needed to keep five public hospitals operating for three months, primarily for fuel and staff incentives.
According to the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, suspected cholera cases in the five most-affected governorates fell from 639 in epidemiological week 40 to 562 in week 41; week 42 was incomplete as of 2026-10-20.
According to UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update, as of 17 October 2026, 3,836 refugees had arrived in Djibouti from Yemen; the update reported that children accounted for 51.8 percent of the refugee population (1,987 children) and children under five accounted for 15.9 percent. The update also reported that UNICEF had identified 13 separated children who had arrived with extended family members as of 19 October 2026, and that more than 250,000 people were internally displaced in Yemen between 1 August and 17 October 2026.
UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update reported that, as of 17 October 2026, 56 acute watery diarrhoea cases and 3 deaths had been reported among the arrivals in Djibouti, with children under 15 accounting for 71 percent of cases. The update reported that the Djibouti Ministry of Health leads the acute watery diarrhoea response, while UNICEF supports case management, supplies, infection prevention and control, water treatment, and risk communication. The update reported that as of 19 October 2026, 43 emergency latrines served the site, or approximately 89 people per latrine, compared with a Sphere maximum of 20 people per latrine; the first phase of the site extension required 84 latrines, 84 bathing facilities, and 21 water points.
UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update reported that around 330 children aged 6 to 59 months had been screened in Djibouti as of 19 October 2026; 79 had severe acute malnutrition and 115 had moderate acute malnutrition.
According to International Medical Corps's 22 October 2026 situation report, IMC-supported facilities provided 16,046 medical consultations on Yemen's west coast. It also reported that a mobile medical team provided 691 consultations, screened 161 children under 5 and 47 pregnant and lactating women for acute malnutrition, immunized 31 women and 61 children, and conducted 69 antenatal care consultations.
International Medical Corps also reported delivering 25 metric tons of essential medicines and medical supplies to 13 health facilities in Al Dhale'e and Lahj governorates.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`); [UNHCR — UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026]() (`yem-unhcr-update-5`); [World Health Organization (EMRO) — WHO: Critical funding gap for the health response in Yemen, 6 October 2026]() (`yem-who-emro-2026-10-06`); [Al Jazeera — Al Jazeera, 23 November 2021: UN report projects Yemen war death toll of 377,000]() (`yem-undp-2021-projection`); [Yemen health response (situation report posted on ReliefWeb) — Conflict Escalation in Yemen - Situation Report #7 (Reporting period: 3 – 11 October 2026 | Issued: 13 October 2026)]() (`yem-who-sitrep-7`)
## Actors and positions
### Houthi authorities / Ansar Allah (Sana'a-based authorities)
- Role: De-facto authority in the most populous, Houthi-controlled north.
- Confidence: high
- Position: Present themselves as the legitimate national authority resisting foreign — Saudi, US, Israeli — aggression; since July 2026 they have declared a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping and carried the war into Saudi Arabia.
- Supporter framing: Supporters cast them as the only force resisting external intervention and Gulf-backed rule.
- Opposing account: The recognised government, Saudi Arabia and the US call them an Iran-aligned movement that seized the state by force.
- Independent assessment: Monitors credit them with de-facto control of the most populous areas but not legitimacy. In September 2026 they took Mokha; by early October they had taken the last main road between Taiz and government-held areas, and the UN human rights chief describes the city as encircled. WFP says it cannot reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz, and 800,000 in all with the West Coast. HRW, Amnesty and the UN document their arbitrary detention of UN staff — 72 in October 2026 — and with WFP's activities in their areas suspended since September 2025, northern needs are a documented blind spot rather than a governance success.
**Source trail:** [UN News — UN chief calls for immediate release of 118 detained UN staff]() (`yem-ohchr-detention-2026`); [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`); [Amnesty International — Yemen — detentions, deaths in custody and unfair trials]() (`yem-amnesty-2026`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`); [UN News — Yemen: Houthi siege, cholera outbreak and aid cuts put civilians in the crosshairs]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-13`); [UN News — Yemen war continues to force families from homes amid hunger and disease]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-20`); [World Food Programme — WFP Yemen - Yemen Annual Country Report 2025 - 2025 Overview]() (`yem-wfp-acr-2025`)
### Internationally recognised government / Presidential Leadership Council
- Role: The UN-recognised authority, exercised through an eight-member council based partly in Aden and Riyadh; internally fractured.
- Confidence: high
- Position: Holds itself as the legitimate government of Yemen, working to restore state authority across the country.
- Supporter framing: Backers frame it as the internationally legitimate alternative to armed movement rule.
- Opposing account: The Houthis call it a foreign-backed shell; southern separatists contest its authority in the south.
- Independent assessment: Recognised, but domestically contested and externally underwritten: an STC offensive in December 2025 and Saudi intervention ended with the STC's dissolution and a reshuffled council, and in January 2026 the government, with Saudi backing, took all of southern Yemen. On 5 October 2026 it announced a counter-offensive against the Houthi advance.
**Source trail:** [US Congressional Research Service (with Security Council Report and CFR) — Yemen — In Focus IF12581]() (`yem-crs-2026`); [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`); [Médecins Sans Frontières — MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026]() (`yem-msf-2026-10-08`)
### Saudi-led coalition and the United States
- Role: External military backers of the recognised government.
- Confidence: medium
- Position: Frame their role as restoring the legitimate government and protecting freedom of navigation in the Red Sea; Saudi Arabia has struck Houthi targets directly since July 2026.
- Supporter framing: Present the intervention as countering Iran-aligned expansion and securing shipping lanes.
- Opposing account: The Houthis frame coalition and US strikes as aggression against Yemen; rights monitors record heavy civilian tolls. Saudi authorities say a Houthi missile attack on Riyadh's main airport in October 2026 killed 12 people.
- Independent assessment: HRW, citing the Yemen Data Project, attributes at least 238 civilian deaths to US strikes between 15 March and 6 May 2025 — a monitor's count, not a court finding; HRW calls one strike an apparent war crime, its own assessment. ACLED records Saudi strikes on the Hodeidah port area on 24 July 2026.
**Source trail:** [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`); [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`)
### Civilians, IDPs and migrants
- Role: The population bearing the compound crisis across all controlled areas; not a belligerent.
- Confidence: high
- Position: Survival priorities are protection, food and medicine, safe routes, and accountability.
- Supporter framing: Humanitarian actors emphasise access and civilian protection ahead of any political-victory narrative.
- Opposing account: Both armed sides accuse civilians or communities of collaboration when perceived to belong to the other camp.
- Independent assessment: UN reporting shows a new wave of displacement — 231,991 people by IOM's count and more than 250,000 by UNHCR's since 1 August 2026 — alongside the 5.2 million counted as displaced before it — some people have been displaced more than once, acute food insecurity, a cholera resurgence and aid obstruction at national scale. Highest evidential weight as victims.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`); [UNHCR — UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026]() (`yem-unhcr-update-5`); [World Health Organization — WHO: Cholera cases surge as conflict in Yemen displaces over 200,000 people, 13 October 2026]() (`yem-who-cholera-2026-10-13`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`)
## Claims and evidence
### Yemen's war has been frozen since the 2022 truce.
- Claimant: Common shorthand since the 2022 truce
- Evidence status: disputed
- Counterclaim: The UN Special Envoy told the Security Council on 9 October 2026 that Yemen had slid back into full-scale war.
- Independent assessment: Accurate for the main fronts from 2022 to mid-2026, outdated since: ACLED records Saudi strikes on the Hodeidah port area on 24 July and Houthi attacks on government camps on 6 August, the Houthis took Mokha in September, and the government announced a counter-offensive on 5 October.
**Source trail:** [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`); [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`); [Médecins Sans Frontières — MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026]() (`yem-msf-2026-10-08`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: US airstrikes from 15 March to 6 May 2025 killed at least 238 civilians, the Yemen Data Project counted, per HRW.
- Alt text: War damage to buildings in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The ~5 million 'Crisis or worse' figure describes Yemen as a whole.
- Claimant: Common misreading of the IPC / WFP number
- Evidence status: disputed
- Counterclaim: That IPC analysis is explicitly a partial analysis of government-controlled areas only.
- Independent assessment: False as a national figure: nationally OCHA counts 18.3 million acutely food insecure, and the Houthi-controlled north is a blind spot after the WFP pause. Presenting the government-area figure as national is a documented error class.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`); [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`)
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The government-area figure is not the national one.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: national vs government-area food insecurity.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Yemen's food insecurity is caused by a single party.
- Claimant: Single-cause narratives from each side
- Evidence status: disputed
- Counterclaim: Food-security bodies name multiple drivers at once.
- Independent assessment: Disputed: the drivers named include economic collapse and currency depreciation, sharp funding cuts, import and access constraints, contested governance and climate shocks — plus the suspension of WFP's activities in Houthi-controlled areas since September 2025, which followed a raid on its offices and the detention of staff, and, since early October 2026, the loss of the last main road into Taiz. Any single-party attribution is unsupported.
**Source trail:** [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`); [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`); [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`); [World Food Programme — WFP Yemen - Yemen Annual Country Report 2025 - 2025 Overview]() (`yem-wfp-acr-2025`); [UN News — Yemen: Houthi siege, cholera outbreak and aid cuts put civilians in the crosshairs]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-13`)
### The Houthis' attacks at sea and on Israel are about Gaza alone.
- Claimant: Gaza-solidarity framing used by the Houthis since 2023
- Evidence status: disputed
- Counterclaim: UN News ties the Houthi attacks on Israel from the end of March 2026 to the US–Iran conflict, and ACLED describes the 2026 maritime campaign as a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping.
- Independent assessment: Disputed: since July 2026, ACLED reports, the Houthis have attacked 10 commercial ships, striking at least six; seven flew a Saudi flag or belonged to a Saudi company, and the Houthis claimed Saudi links for two of the remaining three. ACLED records no corroborated attacks between 24 August and 1 October.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — ACLED: Houthi gains around Bab al-Mandab raise risks to Red Sea shipping and global oil markets (1 October 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-10-01`); [UN News — Yemenis are ‘hanging by a thread’ top aid official warns Security Council]() (`yem-un-news-2026-04-14`)
## Language record
### Hans Grundberg
- Role: UN Special Envoy for Yemen
- Context: Briefing to the Security Council, 9 October 2026.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`)
### UN OCHA
- Role: Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026
- Context: The national scale of need, kept apart from the government-area IPC counts.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [UN OCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026]() (`yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`)
### WFP, FAO and UNICEF
- Role: Joint statement on government-controlled areas
- Context: An area-specific figure, explicitly not national — the north was paused from September 2025.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [WFP, FAO and UNICEF — Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)]() (`yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`)
### World Health Organization
- Role: Statement, 23 December 2024
- Context: 35 per cent of the global caseload in 2024; every count is suspected, not confirmed, and 2026 counts are kept apart.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [World Health Organization — Cholera burden: WHO statement, 23 December 2024]() (`yem-who-cholera-2024`)
### Volker Türk
- Role: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Context: March 2026, on UN staff detained in Yemen, then 73 by UN News's count.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [UN News — UN chief calls for immediate release of 118 detained UN staff]() (`yem-ohchr-detention-2026`)
### Human Rights Watch, citing the Yemen Data Project
- Role: World Report 2026
- Context: A monitor's count relayed by HRW, for 2025.
Quotation text is available in the web edition and the cited original source; it is not republished in this machine-readable edition.
**Source:** [Human Rights Watch — World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements]() (`yem-hrw-2026`)
## Timeline
### 2022-04-02 — UN-brokered truce takes effect — first nationwide ceasefire in years
- Event type: ceasefire
- Confidence: high
A UN-brokered truce between Houthi forces and the Saudi-led coalition took effect in April 2022. It expired on 2 October 2022 when the parties rejected an extension; UN News reports that the ceasefire largely held until the summer of 2026.
**Source trail:** [UNOCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Crisis — UNOCHA]() (`src-yemen-ocha`); [ACLED — ACLED: Violence in Yemen during the UN-mediated truce, April–October 2022]() (`yem-acled-2022`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`)
### 2023-11-19 — Houthi forces begin attacks on Red Sea shipping in solidarity with Gaza
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
Houthi forces began launching missiles and drones at commercial vessels in the Red Sea, citing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The attacks triggered a US-led military response (Operation Prosperity Guardian) and significant disruption to global shipping.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — Yemen — ACLED Tracker]() (`src-yemen-acled`); [UNOCHA — Yemen Humanitarian Crisis — UNOCHA]() (`src-yemen-ocha`)
### 2026-07-13 — Saudi strikes hit Sanaa airport; the Houthis retaliate
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
ACLED reports that Saudi Arabia struck Sanaa International Airport on 13 July and that the Houthis immediately retaliated; between 13 July and 14 August they carried out 16 attacks on Saudi assets, including seven oil facilities and six oil tankers. Their campaign began with an intercepted missile fired at Abha International Airport.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`); [ACLED — ACLED: Houthi gains around Bab al-Mandab raise risks to Red Sea shipping and global oil markets (1 October 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-10-01`)
### 2026-07-24 — Saudi strikes hit the Hodeidah port area and Kamaran Island
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
Saudi forces struck military sites in the al-Hodeidah port area and on Kamaran Island in response to Houthi attacks, according to ACLED.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-08`)
### 2026-08-06 — Houthi strike on Nation's Shield Forces camps in Hadramawt
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: medium
A Houthi strike on Nation's Shield Forces camps in Hadramawt killed approximately 30 people, according to the SARI Global estimate carried by ReliefWeb.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (Aug 2026)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-08`)
### 2026-08-06 — Houthi ballistic-missile and drone strike on Marib
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: medium
A Houthi ballistic-missile and drone strike on Marib killed 15 people, according to the SARI Global estimate carried by ReliefWeb.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (Aug 2026)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-08`)
### 2026-08-09 — Weekly incident and fatality totals recorded across Yemen
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: medium
From 3 to 9 August 2026, 119 operational incidents and 102 fatalities were recorded across Yemen, according to the SARI Global estimate/report carried by ReliefWeb. Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement) initiated 36 incidents causing 61 fatalities, and Yemeni Government forces aligned with the Presidential Leadership Council initiated 32 incidents. The two 6 August strikes killed approximately 45 people combined and drove the week's fatality total; ballistic missiles and drones were concentrated on the Marib and Hadramawt fronts, which the report characterized as a sharp escalation in conflict lethality.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (Aug 2026)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-08`)
### 2026-09-03 — Fighting escalates on the Taiz fronts
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: high
Hostilities escalated along the Ta'iz frontlines with intense shelling and clashes in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi; about 1,790 households were displaced in the first reporting, OCHA said.
**Source trail:** [UN OCHA — OCHA Flash Update: Escalation of hostilities and mass displacement in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi, Taiz, 4 September 2026]() (`yem-ocha-flash-2026-09-04`)
### 2026-09-09 — Clashes in Mokha breach WFP premises; the Houthis take the port in September
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
WFP reported clashes in Al Mokha from 9 September that breached its premises and cut off at least 49 food distribution points; UN News and MSF report that the Houthis captured the port of Mokha and islands in the Bab al-Mandab strait in September.
**Source trail:** [World Food Programme — WFP scales up response in Yemen as fighting displaces thousands, 17 September 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-09-17`); [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`); [Médecins Sans Frontières — MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026]() (`yem-msf-2026-10-08`)
### 2026-09-19 — Houthi missiles target Riyadh for the first time in the escalation
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
The Houthis targeted Riyadh for the first time in the current escalation; Saudi authorities said the missile was intercepted, ACLED reports.
**Source trail:** [ACLED — ACLED: Houthi gains around Bab al-Mandab raise risks to Red Sea shipping and global oil markets (1 October 2026)]() (`yem-acled-2026-10-01`)
### 2026-10-05 — Government announces a counter-offensive
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
The internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, announced a counter-offensive against the Houthi advance; MSF described territorial control as unclear on 8 October.
**Source trail:** [Médecins Sans Frontières — MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026]() (`yem-msf-2026-10-08`)
### 2026-10-09 — UN envoy: Yemen has slid back into full-scale war
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: high
UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council that Yemen had slid back into full-scale war, with hostilities spreading across multiple frontlines.
**Source trail:** [Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen — Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026]() (`yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`)
### 2026-10-10 — UN condemns Houthi missile attack on Riyadh airport
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: high
The UN Secretary-General condemned a Houthi missile attack on Riyadh's main airport that Saudi authorities say killed 12 people and wounded more than 300.
**Source trail:** [UN News — ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-11`)
### 2026-10-13 — Suspected cholera cases triple in three weeks
- Event type: outbreak\_update
- Confidence: high
WHO reported weekly suspected cholera cases rising from 217 in week 36 to 647 in week 39 of 2026, with 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths so far in the year.
**Source trail:** [World Health Organization — WHO: Cholera cases surge as conflict in Yemen displaces over 200,000 people, 13 October 2026]() (`yem-who-cholera-2026-10-13`)
### 2026-10-14 — WFP: more than 600,000 people in Taiz beyond its reach
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: high
WFP said it and its partners cannot access more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on aid; with communities cut off on the West Coast in early September, 800,000 people are beyond its reach. 72 UN personnel remain detained by the Houthis, 37 of them WFP staff.
**Source trail:** [World Food Programme — WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026]() (`yem-wfp-2026-10-14`)
### 2026-10-17 — UNHCR counts more than 250,000 displaced since 1 August
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: high
UNHCR reported displacement inside Yemen reaching more than 250,000 people between 1 August and 17 October, with Taiz hosting the largest share; IOM DTM recorded 231,991 to 14 October.
**Source trail:** [UNHCR — UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026]() (`yem-unhcr-update-5`); [UN OCHA — OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)]() (`yem-ocha-situation-update-5`)
### 2026-10-20 — UN rights chief: 32 civilians confirmed killed in Taiz governorate
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: high
Volker Türk urged Houthi fighters encircling Taiz City to let aid in and said 32 civilians, including 14 children, had been confirmed killed across the governorate.
**Source trail:** [UN News — Yemen war continues to force families from homes amid hunger and disease]() (`yem-un-news-2026-10-20`)
### 2026-10-17 — Map title attributes new displacement to west-coast escalation
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: high
A map titled "Map of New Displacement due to Escalation in the West Coast - Yemen Situation 17 Oct 2026" attributes new displacement to an escalation affecting Yemen's west coast. The 17 October 2026 date appears in the map title; the document record gives 19 October 2026 as publication date. The document record lists coverage of Yemen, Djibouti, and Somalia and identifies Yemen's population group as internally displaced persons. The document record also lists a Yemen situation update dated 18 October 2026 attributed to the CCCM Cluster, Shelter Cluster, Shelter, Land and Site Coordination Cluster, and UNHCR.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-20 — FAO bulletin (21 October 2026): more than 255,000 displaced by 20 October since escalation began
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
According to the FAO bulletin published on 21 October 2026, by 20 October 2026 more than 255,000 people had been internally displaced since the escalation began. The bulletin reports the newly displaced population was concentrated primarily in Taiz, Lahj, and Aden governorates, at 48%, 25%, and 5%, respectively, and says 3.1 million people had been displaced previously.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-21 — FAO bulletin (21 October 2026) says 18.3 million in acute food insecurity
- Event type: disaster\_update
- Confidence: medium
The FAO Yemen Market and Trade Bulletin published on 21 October 2026 says 18.3 million people in Yemen were facing acute food insecurity and more than half the population was in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The bulletin attributes the crisis to import dependency, rising prices, humanitarian-funding deficits, and severe climate impacts.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-21 — FAO bulletin (21 October 2026) reports trade disruption doubled transit times and palm-oil prices up 17%
- Event type: disaster\_update
- Confidence: medium
The FAO bulletin published on 21 October 2026 reports that territorial shifts, insecurity, and access restrictions disrupted trade and import flows and doubled transit times. The same bulletin reports that palm-oil prices had increased by up to 17% year on year.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-20 — UN reportedly warns Ta'iz health system near collapse
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: high
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen reportedly said on 20 October 2026 that as of that date the health system in Ta'iz is close to collapse, with shortages threatening hospital energy supplies and medical oxygen and putting hundreds of patients at risk.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-16 — UNFPA warns of severed maternal care access in Taiz
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
According to a partially confirmed UNFPA report dated 16 October 2026, escalating hostilities in Taiz had severed access to lifesaving care for more than 147,600 women and girls of childbearing age. The same report stated that only 5 of 27 designated emergency maternal and neonatal care hospitals in Taiz city were partially functioning, that more than 13,100 pregnant women were unable to access maternal health services including 1,500 expected to give birth within two weeks, that at least 500 pregnant women would require emergency obstetric and newborn care and could face life-threatening complications without immediate intervention, and that nearly 75 percent of protection-from-violence services for women and girls across Taiz Governorate had been suspended.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-22 — WHO reports critical shortages in Taiz health facilities
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
According to a partially confirmed WHO report dated 22 October 2026, 42 health facilities in Taiz city were experiencing acute shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines or medical supplies. The same report stated that more than 1,110 people with kidney failure required daily dialysis sessions in Taiz, 192 patients were receiving intensive care and 154 newborns were in incubators, and that hospitals and ambulances in Taiz required more than 156,000 litres of fuel per month to maintain operations.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-19 — HEOC register reported 8,513 casualties as of 2026-10-19
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: high
According to the Yemen HEOC register, as reported in the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, 8,513 casualties (6,939 injured, 1,574 deaths) were recorded by 2026-10-19, an increase of 1,340 during the eight days ending 2026-10-19. The register recorded 428 casualties on 2026-10-19, the highest single-day total reported that month; Shabwah's Jardan district accounted for 205 casualties, including 47 deaths, and Lahj accounted for 140. Deaths accounted for 21.8% of casualties during the reporting period ending 2026-10-19, compared with 18.5% cumulatively.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-19 — IOM displacement tracking reported 256,591 displaced people as of 2026-10-19
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: high
According to IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix, as reported in the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, 256,591 displaced people (42,764 households) were counted in Yemen as of 2026-10-19, up from 201,217 people on 2026-10-07.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-20 — Situation report issued on 2026-10-20 reported Taiz facility shortages and US$624,900 hospital estimate
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: high
According to the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, the main Haygat Al-Abd road was cut and 42 facilities in Taiz city reported severe shortages of medicines, fuel, oxygen, blood and reagents. The Joint Medical Emergency Committee estimated that US$624,900 was needed to keep five public hospitals operating for three months, primarily for fuel and staff incentives.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-20 — Suspected cholera cases reported at 562 in epidemiological week 41
- Event type: outbreak\_update
- Confidence: high
According to the situation report issued on 2026-10-20, suspected cholera cases in the five most-affected governorates fell from 639 in epidemiological week 40 to 562 in week 41; week 42 was incomplete as of 2026-10-20.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-17 — UNICEF flash update reports 3,836 refugees arrived in Djibouti from Yemen as of 17 October 2026
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: high
According to UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update, as of 17 October 2026, 3,836 refugees had arrived in Djibouti from Yemen; the update reported that children accounted for 51.8 percent of the refugee population (1,987 children) and children under five accounted for 15.9 percent. The same update reported that more than 250,000 people were internally displaced in Yemen between 1 August and 17 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-17 — UNICEF reports 56 acute watery diarrhoea cases and 3 deaths among Djibouti arrivals as of 17 October 2026
- Event type: outbreak\_update
- Confidence: high
UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update reported that, as of 17 October 2026, 56 acute watery diarrhoea cases and 3 deaths had been reported among arrivals in Djibouti, with children under 15 accounting for 71 percent of cases.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-19 — UNICEF reports sanitation capacity at Djibouti site as of 19 October 2026
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: high
UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update reported that, as of 19 October 2026, 43 emergency latrines served the site, or approximately 89 people per latrine, compared with a Sphere maximum of 20 people per latrine; the first phase of the site extension required 84 latrines, 84 bathing facilities, and 21 water points.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-19 — UNICEF reports acute malnutrition findings among screened children in Djibouti
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: high
UNICEF's 19 October 2026 flash update reported that around 330 children aged 6 to 59 months had been screened in Djibouti as of 19 October 2026; 79 had severe acute malnutrition and 115 had moderate acute malnutrition. The same update reported that UNICEF had identified 13 separated children who had arrived with extended family members as of 19 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-08-01 — West coast hostilities escalate
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: medium
An escalation of hostilities begins along Yemen's west coast, causing civilian displacement.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-09-20 — IOM DTM records west coast displacement
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
According to IOM Yemen DTM, displacement from the west coast escalation reached approximately 128,382 individuals between 1 August and 20 September 2026. According to IOM DTM Yemen Update #9, dated 21 September 2026, cumulative recorded displacement stood at 129,438 individuals as of the same date; the two IOM DTM totals for 20 September 2026 differ.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-09-22 — Insecurity Insight report period ends: incidents affecting health and food services
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
An Insecurity Insight report covering 1 August to 22 September 2026 records at least 11 incidents affecting hospitals, clinics and medical staff and at least 24 incidents damaging farms, fishing and other food-security assets on Yemen's west coast. Humanitarian access has reportedly been reduced, and insecurity, looting and restrictions are reported to be hampering the humanitarian response.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-09-10 — Hostilities intensify in late August and early September
- Event type: conflict\_escalation
- Confidence: medium
According to International Medical Corps, hostilities that began in July 2026 intensified in late August and early September, triggering large-scale population movements toward neighbouring governorates.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-17 — IOM DTM records 251,125 people displaced in Yemen
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
According to IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix, as cited by International Medical Corps on 22 October 2026, 251,125 people (41,853 households) were displaced across 10 governorates between 1 August and 17 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-30 — UNHCR briefing on refugees in Yemen
- Event type: international\_response
- Confidence: medium
UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said tens of thousands of refugees face escalating insecurity, economic collapse and severe access constraints.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-30 — Sea crossings from Horn of Africa continue
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
Thousands continue to risk dangerous sea crossings from the Horn of Africa to Yemen despite the intensifying conflict, according to UNHCR.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-30 — Aid and disruptions at Kharaz refugee camp
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
Partners reportedly distributed food at Kharaz camp and health and water provision reportedly continue, while nearby shelling reportedly disrupted services and led to movement restrictions.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-10)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-10`)
### 2026-10-17 — Yemeni arrivals in Djibouti reach 3,836
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
As of 17 October 2026, 3,836 Yemeni nationals had arrived in Djibouti, half of them children including 282 under age five, according to an IOM release dated 23 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-23 — Displacement within Yemen exceeds 268,000
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
As of 23 October 2026, more than 268,000 people had been displaced within Yemen, almost all since the start of September 2026, according to IOM data.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-23 — Aden displaced population exceeds 42,000
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
In Aden, the number of displaced people more than doubled after 7 October 2026 and exceeded 42,000, according to the IOM release of 23 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-23 — Displaced families located in 62 districts across ten governorates
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
Lahj governorate was hosting about 67,000 displaced people, and displaced families were located in 62 districts across ten governorates, reaching as far east as Al Maharah, according to the IOM release of 23 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-11-06 — WFP reports record-high inadequate food consumption in GoY-controlled Yemen
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
According to the World Food Programme's update published 6 November 2026, inadequate food consumption in Government-of-Yemen-controlled areas reached a record high in the most recent monthly reference period covered by the update, and nearly three-quarters of households adopted at least one food-based coping strategy to address food shortages, indicating depleting household resilience. WFP states that conflict-affected areas, particularly the encircled districts of Ta'iz governorate, are disproportionately affected, and it expects conditions to worsen through the end of the year.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-11-06 — WFP Emergency Food Security Assessment for newly displaced people ongoing
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
As of 6 November 2026, the World Food Programme reported that an Emergency Food Security Assessment for newly displaced people in Yemen was ongoing.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-02 — Ministry of Health reports 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries
- Event type: casualty\_update
- Confidence: medium
According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries had been reported from 10 governorates as of 2 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-06 — IOM and WHO report about 200,000 displaced since escalation began
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
IOM Yemen DTM recorded 201,217 cumulative IDPs (33,535 households) since the current escalation began as of 6 October 2026, including an increase of 27,072 individuals that day; WHO reported almost 198,000 displaced since the escalation began. IOM DTM data covering 1 August to 6 October show 57% of displacement linked to the escalation on the west coast in Ta'iz (114,708), 21% in Lahj (42,264) and 10% in Aden (20,814).
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-10-06 — WHO says additional $700,000 required for Djibouti refugee response
- Event type: international\_response
- Confidence: medium
WHO said an additional US$700,000 is required for the refugee response in Djibouti, according to a statement dated 6 October 2026.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-11-05 — IMC reports 319,356 displaced across Yemen
- Event type: displacement\_update
- Confidence: medium
International Medical Corps reported 319,356 people from 53,226 families displaced across Yemen as of 5 November 2026, about 27% more than in its previous situation report.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
### 2026-11-05 — IMC reports expanded mobile medical teams and supply distribution
- Event type: humanitarian\_access
- Confidence: medium
International Medical Corps' 5 November 2026 situation report says mobile medical teams in Abyan and Lahj provided 1,219 consultations and screened 444 children and 118 pregnant and lactating women for acute malnutrition, 56 metric tons of essential medicines and supplies were distributed across Aden, Al Dhale'e, Lahj and Taiz, and supported facilities on the west coast provided 23,347 medical consultations.
**Source trail:** [ReliefWeb (OCHA) — ReliefWeb reports ingested by editorial pipeline (2026-11)]() (`src-yemen-confli-editorial-2026-11`)
## Visual essay
### Gallery image 01
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A rural clinic: OCHA counts 59.3 per cent of Yemen's health facilities fully functional, and WHO's 2026 appeal says just one in five can provide maternal and child health services.
- Alt text: A rural health centre interior in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Gallery image 02
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Therapeutic-food distribution: over 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished, 516,157 of them severely.
- Alt text: Distribution of ready-to-use therapeutic food in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Gallery image 03
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Displacement is counted apart from every other figure: 5.2 million IDPs, distinct from migrants and refugees, never summed.
- Alt text: Displaced people in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
## Linked visual references
### Hunger Ward
- Photographer: Skye Fitzgerald
- Publisher: MTV Documentary Films
- Recognition: Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Short, 2021
- Why it matters: A field record of clinicians treating starving children in two Yemeni therapeutic feeding centres, filmed inside the famine the figures describe.
- Original: [Open reference]()
#### The famine, filmed inside the feeding ward.
Fitzgerald's film stays with its publisher; this issue reads its evidence value inside the dossier — a way to see the child-malnutrition figures as the wards where they are counted.
The reference matters because malnutrition statistics blur into abstraction fast. The film returns them to a scale, a weighing chart, a mother, a clinician deciding who is stable enough to send home.
The work remains a rights-controlled reference; this dossier links it rather than lifting it. It anchors the human scene beneath the 2.2 million acutely malnourished children without turning one film into the whole war.
## Media desk
### Yemen — areas of control
- Publisher: Wikimedia Commons
- Creator: Wikimedia Commons contributors
- Date: Maintained file
- Media type: map
- Rights mode: direct\_image
- Placement: Orientation map / contested geography
- Caption: The war needs a map before its numbers make sense: the north where WFP paused, the government-held south the IPC now measures, and the Red Sea ports UNVIM clears.
- Why it matters: Reusable orientation asset; geography context that explains why national, government-area and northern-ports figures cannot be added together.
The map belongs early because Yemen's entire measurement problem is territorial: a country cut into a counted south and a switched-off north, with a supply line offshore. A public map orients; it does not certify any single front line.
- Original: [Open media record]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A maintained Wikimedia Commons map orients the reader between Houthi-held north and government-held south — the split that runs through every figure in this file.
- Alt text: Map of Yemen showing areas of control in the civil war.
- Credit: Ali Zifan
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### UNVIM Situation Report, August 2026 — northern-ports import ledger
- Publisher: UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism / UNOPS
- Creator: UNVIM
- Date: August 2026
- Media type: dashboard
- Rights mode: linked\_reference\_only
- Placement: Displacement / supply-line data surface
- Caption: UNVIM clears vessels bound for Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa — and only those; this is the northern supply line alone.
- Why it matters: The one mechanism that scores what reaches the Houthi-held north; it measures clearance at the port, not distribution to beneficiaries.
The ledger belongs beside the hunger figures because the north is a data gap after WFP suspended its work there, and UNVIM tonnage is the nearest available proxy — with the sharp caveat that cargo discharged is not food eaten.
- Original: [Open media record]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: UNVIM's northern-ports ledger: 833,181 tonnes discharged in August 2026, 511,412 of it food — a northern figure only, and a count of cargo at the quay, not food that reached anyone.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: 833,181 tonnes discharged at Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa in August 2026.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
## Source readings
### The national figure, and only the national figure.
- Registry ID: `yem-ocha-hnrp-2026`
- Publisher: UN OCHA
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-03-29
- Registry title: Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026
- Editorial note: The national planning ledger; keep strictly apart from government-area IPC counts.
- Original: [Open source]()
OCHA reads Yemen as an inventory of deprivation the truce did not touch: more than 22 million people in need, 18.3 million acutely food insecure, a health system barely three-fifths working.
The 2026 plan counts more than 22 million people needing humanitarian assistance (CRS and HRW cite 22.3 million), including 18.3 million acutely food insecure, 5.2 million internally displaced, over 2.2 million small children acutely malnourished, and 59.3 per cent of health facilities fully functional. It asks US$2.16 billion. The plan predates the 2026 escalation; OCHA reported it 12.7 per cent funded in May, and UNHCR put it at about 21 per cent on 22 September.
These are national figures, and the discipline of this file is to keep them apart from the government-area IPC counts that measure only the south. The targeted figure — 12 million, 9.4 million prioritized — is a resourcing number, not the scale of need.
#### Takeaways
- Anchor source for Yemen's national need, displacement and health figures — never blended with the government-area IPC counts.
- IDPs (5.2M), migrants (329k) and refugees (63k) are distinct populations; SAM is a subset of the malnutrition total.
- The funding percentage is rolling: 12.7% in May 2026, about 21% on 22 September (UNHCR via IFRC).
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: OCHA's 2026 plan: more than 22 million in need nationally, 12 million targeted, US$2.16 billion asked — and, as of May, 12.7 per cent of the funding secured, OCHA's April update reports.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: more than 22 million in need, 12 million targeted, US$2.16 billion asked, 12.7% funded as of May 2026.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### A hunger map split in two.
- Registry ID: `yem-wfp-ipc-irg-2026`
- Publisher: WFP, FAO and UNICEF
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-06-03
- Registry title: Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas (WFP / FAO / UNICEF, IPC)
- Editorial note: A government-area figure only — never national; the north is a documented blind spot.
- Original: [Open source]()
The sharpest recent classification describes only the government-controlled south: WFP's activities in Houthi-controlled areas are suspended, since September 2025 by its own annual report.
WFP, FAO and UNICEF record nearly 5 million people in Crisis or worse — 47 per cent of the population, 1.4 million of them at Emergency level — in Yemen's government-controlled areas, with projections climbing to 5.4 million through the June-to-September lean season. That figure is pointedly not national, because WFP's activities in Houthi-controlled areas are suspended (since September 2025, per WFP's annual country report), leaving the northern half of the country a data-and-access blind spot rather than a lower number.
It projects 5.4 million people in Crisis or worse during the June-to-September lean season. In a release on 2 October 2026, WFP said recent monitoring in accessible areas found 74 per cent of households unable to meet basic food needs, a record for the year.
#### Takeaways
- An IRG-area figure only — never present the ~5 million as national; the national figure is OCHA's 18.3 million.
- The north is a data blind spot after the September 2025 WFP pause — flag it, do not read it as improvement.
- Separate current figures from lean-season projections; WFP's 74 per cent is from accessible areas only.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The hunger map split in two: 18.3 million acutely food insecure nationally (OCHA); a separate ~5 million in Crisis or worse in government-controlled areas only (WFP/IPC), with the north switched off.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: national 18.3 million food insecure vs government-area ~5 million, with the north a data gap.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The world's worst cholera, in a half-working health system.
- Registry ID: `yem-who-cholera-2024`
- Publisher: World Health Organization
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2024-12-23
- Registry title: Cholera burden: WHO statement, 23 December 2024
- Editorial note: The world's highest cholera burden; two documents, two years, kept apart.
- Original: [Open source]()
In a statement dated December 2024, WHO called Yemen the country with the highest cholera burden in the world — and the response was as much about money as microbes.
WHO put Yemen at 35 per cent of the global cholera caseload and 18 per cent of reported deaths, on 249,900 suspected cholera and acute-watery-diarrhoea cases and 861 associated deaths through the first eleven months of 2024. It documented a vaccination drive reaching 3.2 million people, set against 47 diarrhoea-treatment centres and 234 rehydration points closed for lack of funding, with a US$20 million gap in the response budget.
That statement describes 2024. The later counts belong to other periods: ReliefWeb's outbreak page records 87,566 cases from 1 January to 26 October 2025 and 339,371 suspected cases since March 2024, and WHO reported 8,034 suspected cases in 2026 to week 39. The cumulative 339,371 is not a single-year figure.
#### Takeaways
- Three periods, three counts: 2024 (WHO statement), 2025 to 26 October, and 2026 to week 39 — never merged.
- Every cholera count is suspected, not lab-confirmed; the DTC figures are closures, not operational capacity.
- Health-facility functionality (~59-60%) and cholera are read together as one system of collapse, not as ideology.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: WHO's December 2024 statement: Yemen carries 35 per cent of the world's cholera burden — 249,900 suspected cases and 861 deaths that year. The later 339,371 is a cumulative count since March 2024, not a 2025 total.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: 35% of the global cholera burden; 249,900 suspected cases and 861 deaths in 2024.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### A crisis logged as a manifest.
- Registry ID: `yem-unvim-ports-2026`
- Publisher: UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism / UNOPS
- Source type: primary\_document
- Published: 2026-09-22
- Registry title: UNVIM Situation Report, August 2026
- Editorial note: The northern supply line alone — cargo discharged at the quay, not food distributed. The report is published as an image; the date is the file's posting date on vimye.org.
- Original: [Open source]()
A single UN mechanism keeps score of what reaches the Houthi-held north: UNVIM, which clears vessels bound for the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah, Saleef and Ras Isa — and only those.
In August 2026 UNVIM recorded 32 vessels discharging cargo at the three northern ports: 833,181 tonnes in all, of which 511,412 tonnes were food, 72,567 fuel and 249,202 containerised cargo. Saleef took 468,933 tonnes, Ras Isa 216,439 and Hodeidah 147,809. The mechanism covers only the Red Sea ports outside government control, so this is the northern supply line alone.
It is a northern figure, not a national one, and it counts cargo discharged at the quay, not food that reached anyone, in a north where WFP's activities are suspended. UNVIM notes that the categorisation of items is the Government of Yemen's.
#### Takeaways
- A northern-ports figure only, never national; Aden and the southern ports sit outside UNVIM's scope.
- 'Cleared' and 'discharged' are different metrics — 659,951 tonnes cleared against 833,181 discharged in August — and neither confirms distribution to beneficiaries.
- Single-month, volatile — read as an access proxy for the northern data gap, not a food-security outcome.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The northern ports are the one place the war's supply line can be counted — and counting cargo at the quay is not the same as food reaching a table inland.
- Alt text: The Red Sea port area in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The people sent to answer the crisis cannot leave.
- Registry ID: `yem-ohchr-detention-2026`
- Publisher: UN News
- Source type: human\_rights
- Published: 2026-03-25
- Registry title: UN chief calls for immediate release of 118 detained UN staff
- Editorial note: The war counted in people the UN cannot reach.
- Original: [Open source]()
OHCHR counts the war in people it cannot reach: UN and humanitarian staff held by the Houthi authorities, some for five years.
UN News reported in March 2026 that 73 UN staff were detained by the Houthi authorities in Yemen, eight of them from the UN human rights office — the single largest concentration within a worldwide total that had risen from 52 to 118 in a year. The High Commissioner, Volker Türk, said some had been deprived of their liberty for five years.
The count covers UN staff only. A World Food Programme aid worker died in Houthi custody on 11 February 2025, HRW reports, and HRW notes that since the Human Rights Council ended the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts in October 2021 there has been no independent international mechanism to monitor Yemen's human rights situation. The detentions are recorded as the monitors recorded them, attributed, not turned into a verdict.
#### Takeaways
- 'Arbitrary detention' is the UN's characterization, disputed by the Houthis — attribute it, and pin each count to its date.
- The 73 Yemen figure (March 2026) is a subset of the 118 detained worldwide; the October 2026 count is 72.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: 73 UN staff, all Yemeni, held in Houthi detention as of early 2026 — the single largest concentration within a worldwide total that rose from 52 to 118 in a year.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: 73 UN staff detained in Yemen within a worldwide total that rose from 52 to 118.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The strikes, and the courts, attributed.
- Registry ID: `yem-hrw-2026`
- Publisher: Human Rights Watch
- Source type: human\_rights
- Published: 2026-01-16
- Registry title: World Report 2026 (Yemen) and detention statements
- Editorial note: Detentions and the 2025 US airstrike toll, attributed to the monitors who kept it.
- Original: [Open source]()
Human Rights Watch documents both the Houthi detention campaign and a 2025 US airstrike toll — every figure attributed to the monitor, never adopted as the file's own verdict.
Human Rights Watch's World Report 2026 records that the Houthis began a campaign of arrests targeting UN staff and civil society on 31 May 2024, and that as of December 2025 there were 69 UN employees in Houthi detention. Citing the Yemen Data Project, it reports US airstrikes on Yemen between 15 March and 6 May 2025 killing at least 238 civilians, including 84 at Ras Issa Port on 17 April, which it calls an apparent war crime, and over 68 at a migrant detention centre in Saada on 28 April.
The numbers are the Yemen Data Project's, relayed by HRW. The 'war crime' language is HRW's assessment, not a court's finding, and this dossier keeps it that way. HRW's later briefing of August 2026 gives 73 detained UN staff as of February 2026.
#### Takeaways
- An advocacy monitor — attribute throughout; the airstrike toll is the Yemen Data Project's via HRW.
- 'Apparent war crime' is HRW's assessment, not a court finding; single-incident tolls are subsets of the 238, never additions.
- HRW documents violations by all parties — no false parity between belligerents.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Civilian harm in this period also came from the air; the record belongs to the monitors — the Yemen Data Project, relayed by HRW — not to a court.
- Alt text: War damage to buildings in Sana'a, Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The north as a ledger of disappearances.
- Registry ID: `yem-amnesty-2026`
- Publisher: Amnesty International
- Source type: human\_rights
- Published: 2026-06-07
- Registry title: Yemen — detentions, deaths in custody and unfair trials
- Editorial note: Testimony and court records from the Houthi-held north; a second monitor corroborating HRW.
- Original: [Open source]()
Amnesty reads the Houthi-held north as detention and unfair trials — corroborating the detention record from a second monitor.
Amnesty's annual report records that the Houthis carried out multiple waves of arrests, arbitrarily detaining at least dozens of UN staff, and that by December, according to the UN, the total number of UN staff arbitrarily detained by the Houthis since 2021 had reached 69. It catalogues Houthi-court verdicts: on 20 January 2025 the Specialized Criminal Court in Sana'a sentenced 18 men to death and 113 others to prison on charges including 'prostitution,' 'posing as women' and 'immoral acts,' and on 24 May it sentenced a journalist to 18 months for 'spreading false and misleading news.'
The account is an advocacy source, read with method in mind. Its 69 is a December 2025 count; HRW gives 73 for February 2026, and UN and WFP statements give 72 in October 2026.
#### Takeaways
- An advocacy monitor that corroborates the HRW detention record from a second source.
- The 69 (December 2025), 73 (February 2026) and 72 (October 2026) figures are distinct snapshots, never merged.
- The Specialized Criminal Court is a de-facto-authority body; its charge labels are its own, reported as such.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The detention count as a trajectory: 13 UN staff at the outset in May 2024; 69 by December 2025, a total that includes staff detained in 2021 and 2023; 73 by February 2026 — each snapshot distinct, none summed.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: detention trajectory 13 to 69 to 73 UN staff.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### What the 2022 truce did to the death toll.
- Registry ID: `yem-acled-2022`
- Publisher: ACLED
- Source type: research
- Published: 2022-10-14
- Registry title: ACLED: Violence in Yemen during the UN-mediated truce, April–October 2022
- Editorial note: The truce as an event ledger; a dated 2022 analysis, not a current toll.
- Original: [Open source]()
ACLED measured the six-month truce in its own data: more shelling, far fewer deaths from it, and an expiry on 2 October 2022.
ACLED's review of the six-month truce says the halt to offensive operations led to a 90 per cent reduction in reported fatalities from confrontations between the warring parties, compared with the six months before. Shelling increased eightfold between April and October 2022, while the reported fatalities from shelling fell by 97 per cent. Most reported fatalities from fighting between Houthi and government forces came from armed clashes, more than half of them in Marib and Taizz; an attempted Houthi offensive west of Taizz city in late August, with a reported 23 Houthi and 10 government fatalities, was the truce's deadliest episode.
The truce came to an end on 2 October 2022, when the warring sides rejected the UN envoy's proposal to extend and expand it. This report describes 2022 and is not a current toll; ACLED's two-month review is cited separately.
#### Takeaways
- Reported fatalities from confrontations fell 90 per cent during the 2022 truce; shelling rose eightfold, with 97 per cent fewer deaths from it, per ACLED.
- The truce formally ended on 2 October 2022, when the parties rejected an extension.
- A 2022 measurement, not a current toll.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: ACLED on the 2022 truce: shelling rose eightfold between April and October against the six months before, while the reported fatalities from shelling fell by 97 per cent — a 2022 measurement, not a current toll.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: during the 2022 truce ACLED recorded an eightfold rise in shelling and a 97 per cent fall in the fatalities from it.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The south's power struggle, and the frame before September.
- Registry ID: `yem-crs-2026`
- Publisher: US Congressional Research Service (with Security Council Report and CFR)
- Source type: research
- Published: 2026-02-20
- Registry title: Yemen — In Focus IF12581
- Editorial note: Analytical secondary source, updated as of July 2026 — before the September escalation; attributed, not primary UN data.
- Original: [Open source]()
The Congressional Research Service describes the IRG's internal reshuffle and the end of UNMHA — as of July 2026.
CRS reports that an STC offensive on IRG-aligned forces in December 2025 and Saudi military intervention resulted in the STC's dissolution and changes in the make-up of the eight-person Presidential Leadership Council and the cabinet, leaving Saudi Arabia the IRG's principal sponsor. It notes US support for the Security Council decision to end UNMHA, the mission set up under the 2018 Hudaydah Agreement.
The CRS product is dated as of July 2026, before the Houthi offensive of September. Its national figures — 22.3 million in need, 18.3 million acutely food insecure — repeat OCHA's.
#### Takeaways
- Analytical source — attribute; its national figures are OCHA's.
- The southern power struggle (STC offensive, Saudi intervention, STC dissolution) is a distinct lane from the human-cost spine.
- Dated July 2026; it does not cover the September escalation.
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The Congressional Research Service's snapshot as of July 2026, before the September offensive: 22.3 million in need and 18.3 million acutely food insecure, repeating OCHA's figures.
- Alt text: A public gathering in solidarity with Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### The envoy: Yemen has slid back into full-scale war.
- Registry ID: `yem-envoy-briefing-2026-10-09`
- Publisher: Office of the UN Special Envoy for Yemen
- Source type: official\_position
- Published: 2026-10-09
- Registry title: Briefing by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, to the Security Council, 9 October 2026
- Editorial note: The UN mediator's own reading of the war; an official position, not a casualty count.
- Original: [Open source]()
On 9 October the UN Special Envoy told the Security Council that the war had returned on several fronts at once.
Briefing the Security Council on 9 October 2026, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said that in the preceding weeks Yemen had slid back into full-scale war, with hostilities spreading across multiple frontlines.
Before closing, he reminded the Council of the detained UN staff, welcomed the release of one UN detainee and said that 72 of his colleagues remained detained. The briefing is the mediator's assessment; it does not give casualty or displacement totals, which come from OCHA, IOM, UNHCR and WHO.
#### Takeaways
- The UN's own mediator describes the situation as full-scale war as of 9 October 2026.
- The envoy counts 72 UN colleagues still detained.
- Use it for the political reading, not for casualty figures.
### The ceasefire held until the summer; then Mokha fell.
- Registry ID: `yem-un-news-2026-10-11`
- Publisher: UN News
- Source type: news
- Published: 2026-10-11
- Registry title: ‘These attacks must cease immediately’: Guterres condemns deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport
- Editorial note: UN News report; casualty figures for the airport attack are Saudi official figures.
- Original: [Open source]()
UN News sets the Riyadh airport attack against the wider collapse of the 2022 ceasefire.
UN News reports that Secretary-General António Guterres condemned a Houthi missile attack on Riyadh's main airport that Saudi authorities say killed 12 people and wounded more than 300.
The report says a 2022 ceasefire largely held until the summer of 2026, and that in September the Houthis swept down Yemen's Red Sea coast, capturing the port of Mokha and islands in the Bab al-Mandab strait. Saudi officials and the Yemeni government say they have since regained control of the strait; the Houthis deny it.
#### Takeaways
- Saudi authorities put the Riyadh airport toll at 12 killed and more than 300 wounded.
- The 2022 ceasefire largely held until the summer of 2026.
- Control of the Bab al-Mandab strait is contested: claimed by Saudi Arabia and the government, denied by the Houthis.
### The summer the ceasefire began to break.
- Registry ID: `yem-acled-2026-08`
- Publisher: ACLED
- Source type: research
- Published: 2026-08-19
- Registry title: ACLED: The Houthis ramp up activity in Yemen and Saudi Arabia (August 2026)
- Editorial note: A conflict-data analysis of the summer escalation; event counts are ACLED's, attributed.
- Original: [Open source]()
ACLED dates the turn: Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport on 13 July, immediate Houthi retaliation against Saudi assets, Saudi strikes on the Hodeidah port area on 24 July, and Houthi attacks on government camps in August.
ACLED reports that after Saudi strikes on Sanaa International Airport on 13 July the Houthis immediately retaliated, carrying out 16 attacks on Saudi assets by 14 August, including seven oil facilities and six oil tankers, and that Saudi forces struck military sites in the al-Hodeidah port area and on Kamaran Island on 24 July 2026, responding to Houthi attacks. On 6 August the Houthis carried out simultaneous attacks on government camps in Hadramawt and Marib, killing at least 30 soldiers, in what ACLED calls the most serious escalation between the two sides since 2022.
ACLED records near-daily clashes since then on internal frontlines, mainly in Marib, Taizz and al-Hodeidah, and a multi-pronged attack on the government-held port city of Mocha on 9 August. It also notes that in January 2026 the government, with Saudi backing, seized all of southern Yemen from the Southern Transitional Council.
#### Takeaways
- After Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport on 13 July, the Houthis carried out 16 attacks on Saudi assets by 14 August; Saudi forces struck the Hodeidah port area on 24 July.
- ACLED counts at least 30 soldiers killed on 6 August; SARI Global gave a higher estimate for the same day.
- Near-daily clashes followed in Marib, Taizz and al-Hodeidah.
### Strikes reach Riyadh; the shipping campaign narrows to Saudi-linked vessels.
- Registry ID: `yem-acled-2026-10-01`
- Publisher: ACLED
- Source type: research
- Published: 2026-10-01
- Registry title: ACLED: Houthi gains around Bab al-Mandab raise risks to Red Sea shipping and global oil markets (1 October 2026)
- Editorial note: Read for the cross-border strikes and the narrowed maritime campaign; claims by the parties are attributed.
- Original: [Open source]()
ACLED traces how the 2026 war spilled into Saudi Arabia and back onto the Red Sea.
ACLED reports that a Houthi strike wave on 8 September targeting Khamis Mushait, Abha and other locations injured 73 civilians, and that on 19 September the Houthis targeted Riyadh for the first time in the current escalation; Saudi authorities said that missile was intercepted.
Since announcing a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping in July, the Houthis have attacked 10 commercial ships, most of them tankers, and struck at least six, according to ACLED. It records no corroborated maritime attacks between 24 August and the report's publication on 1 October.
#### Takeaways
- Houthi strikes reached Riyadh on 19 September 2026.
- Since July 2026 the Houthis have attacked 10 commercial ships, at least six successfully: seven Saudi-flagged or Saudi-owned, with Saudi links claimed by the Houthis for two of the other three.
- No corroborated maritime attacks from 24 August to 1 October.
### Taiz, 3 September: the fronts move again.
- Registry ID: `yem-ocha-flash-2026-09-04`
- Publisher: UN OCHA
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-09-04
- Registry title: OCHA Flash Update: Escalation of hostilities and mass displacement in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi, Taiz, 4 September 2026
- Editorial note: An early, district-level displacement snapshot; superseded in scale by later DTM and UNHCR counts.
- Original: [Open source]()
OCHA's flash update of 4 September counts an estimated 1,790 households displaced since 3 September in Taiz governorate's Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi districts.
OCHA reports that hostilities escalated along the Ta'iz frontlines in the early hours of Thursday, 3 September 2026, with intense shelling and clashes in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi districts. An estimated 1,790 households had been displaced by the time of reporting.
Most displaced families moved within the two districts; entire IDP sites reportedly emptied, generating secondary displacement. The update is a first snapshot; later IOM and UNHCR counts give the national scale.
#### Takeaways
- Fighting escalated on the Taiz fronts on 3 September 2026.
- An estimated 1,790 households had been displaced since 3 September, with movements continuing, per the flash update of 4 September.
- A district snapshot, not a national total.
### Displacement since August, counted household by household.
- Registry ID: `yem-ocha-situation-update-5`
- Publisher: UN OCHA
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-18
- Registry title: OCHA Situation Update No. 5: Escalation of hostilities and displacement across Yemen (1 August to 15 October 2026)
- Editorial note: The national displacement ledger since August, built on IOM DTM figures; civilian-casualty counts are OHCHR-verified subsets.
- Original: [Open source]()
OCHA's fifth update sets the scale of the 2026 displacement and the access collapse around Taiz.
OCHA reports, on IOM DTM figures, that 231,991 people (38,664 households) were displaced by conflict between 1 August and 14 October 2026. OHCHR verified 94 incidents during the reporting period that caused 233 civilian casualties, 55 killed and 178 injured, with children more than a third of them.
Since 8 October humanitarian partners have been unable to move between Ta'iz City and the southern districts. OCHA warns that families are arriving in overcrowded sites amid an ongoing cholera outbreak.
#### Takeaways
- 231,991 people displaced between 1 August and 14 October 2026, per IOM DTM.
- OHCHR verified 55 civilians killed and 178 injured in 94 incidents in the reporting period; a verified subset, not a total.
- No humanitarian movement between Ta'iz City and the southern districts since 8 October.
### More than a quarter of a million on the move.
- Registry ID: `yem-unhcr-update-5`
- Publisher: UNHCR
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-19
- Registry title: UNHCR Emergency Update #5: Yemen Situation, 19 October 2026
- Editorial note: UNHCR's displacement count runs higher than IOM DTM's; the two are kept apart.
- Original: [Open source]()
UNHCR counts more than 250,000 people displaced inside Yemen since 1 August.
UNHCR reports that displacement inside Yemen continued to rise sharply, reaching more than 250,000 people between 1 August and 17 October 2026, with Taiz hosting the largest share of those displaced.
UNHCR's figure is higher than the 231,991 recorded by IOM DTM to 14 October; the two counts cover slightly different periods and methods, and this dossier does not merge them.
#### Takeaways
- More than 250,000 people displaced between 1 August and 17 October 2026, per UNHCR.
- Taiz hosts the largest share of the newly displaced.
- UNHCR and IOM DTM counts differ and are kept apart.
### The health ministry's count on 2 October: 959 dead, 4,207 injured.
- Registry ID: `yem-who-emro-2026-10-06`
- Publisher: World Health Organization (EMRO)
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-06
- Registry title: WHO: Critical funding gap for the health response in Yemen, 6 October 2026
- Editorial note: Casualty figures are Ministry of Health and Population figures relayed by WHO, not independently verified.
- Original: [Open source]()
WHO relays the Ministry of Health and Population's toll from ten governorates.
WHO reports that as of 2 October 2026, 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries had been reported from 10 governorates in Yemen, according to the Ministry of Health and Population. It adds that almost 198,000 people had been displaced since the escalation began, according to the Executive Unit for IDP Camp Management, as of 28 September.
The casualty numbers are ministry figures. They are not OHCHR-verified civilian counts, and they do not separate combatants from civilians.
#### Takeaways
- 959 deaths and 4,207 injuries reported from 10 governorates as of 2 October 2026, per the health ministry.
- Ministry figures, relayed by WHO; not independently verified.
- The displacement figure WHO relays (almost 198,000, from the Executive Unit for IDP Camp Management, as of 28 September) is a third count, earlier than IOM's and UNHCR's.
### Cholera triples in three weeks.
- Registry ID: `yem-who-cholera-2026-10-13`
- Publisher: World Health Organization
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Registry title: WHO: Cholera cases surge as conflict in Yemen displaces over 200,000 people, 13 October 2026
- Editorial note: Suspected cases, not laboratory-confirmed; the 2026 count is a year-to-date figure.
- Original: [Open source]()
WHO reports a sharp rise in suspected cholera alongside displacement from the fighting.
WHO reports that suspected cholera cases tripled in three weeks, rising from 217 in epidemiological week 36 to 647 in week 39 of 2026. Yemen had reported 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths in 2026 by that point.
WHO is supporting the Ministry of Public Health and Population with rapid response teams and treatment centres. The figures are suspected cases and should not be added to the 2024 and 2025 counts.
#### Takeaways
- Weekly suspected cases rose from 217 (week 36) to 647 (week 39) of 2026.
- 8,034 suspected cases and 27 deaths reported in 2026 to week 39.
- Suspected, not confirmed; a year-to-date figure.
### The cumulative count, and the year it belongs to.
- Registry ID: `yem-reliefweb-cholera-2024`
- Publisher: ReliefWeb (OCHA)
- Source type: humanitarian
- Registry title: Yemen: Cholera Outbreak, March 2024 onward (ReliefWeb disaster page)
- Editorial note: Read for the multi-year cumulative count and the 2025 year-to-date figure; the two must not be confused.
- Original: [Open source]()
ReliefWeb's outbreak page separates the cumulative cholera count since March 2024 from the 2025 year-to-date figure.
The ReliefWeb outbreak page records 339,371 suspected cholera cases in Yemen since March 2024, a cumulative figure that spans 2024 and 2025, in a passage citing OCHA (4 January 2026). It separately records 87,566 cholera cases and 237 deaths from 1 January to 26 October 2025, citing WHO.
The 2025 figure is year-to-date, to 26 October; the cumulative count must not be read as a single year.
#### Takeaways
- 339,371 suspected cases since March 2024 is a cumulative, multi-year figure.
- 87,566 cases and 237 deaths were reported from 1 January to 26 October 2025, a year-to-date figure.
- The cumulative count is not a 2025 total.
### Taiz cut off, and 72 UN staff still held.
- Registry ID: `yem-wfp-2026-10-14`
- Publisher: World Food Programme
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-14
- Registry title: WFP warns escalating Yemen conflict is cutting life-saving assistance in the city of Taiz, 14 October 2026
- Editorial note: WFP's own access and detention figures, from its statement of 14 October.
- Original: [Open source]()
WFP says it cannot reach more than 600,000 people in Taiz — 800,000 with the West Coast — and counts its own detained staff.
WFP says it and its partners cannot access more than 600,000 people in Taiz who depend on humanitarian assistance, including more than 200,000 women and children. Combined with communities affected by access losses on the West Coast in early September, it says, a total of 800,000 people are now beyond its reach.
WFP also states that 72 UN personnel remain detained by the Houthi de facto authorities, including 37 WFP colleagues, and joins the Secretary-General in calling for their release.
#### Takeaways
- More than 600,000 people in Taiz beyond WFP's reach, and 800,000 in all with the West Coast, as of 14 October 2026.
- 72 UN personnel detained by the Houthi authorities, 37 of them WFP staff.
### Three in four monitored households cannot meet basic food needs.
- Registry ID: `yem-wfp-2026-10-02`
- Publisher: World Food Programme
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-02
- Registry title: WFP warns hunger is surging in Yemen as conflict displaces thousands, 2 October 2026
- Editorial note: Monitoring covers accessible areas only; the Houthi-held north remains outside WFP's reach.
- Original: [Open source]()
WFP's monitoring in accessible areas shows food security deteriorating as the war returns.
WFP reports that recent monitoring in accessible areas found 74 per cent of households unable to meet their basic food needs, a record for the year that indicates significant deterioration in food security.
The monitoring covers accessible areas only; WFP's activities in Houthi-controlled areas are suspended (since September 2025, per WFP's annual country report), so the north is not in this figure.
#### Takeaways
- 74 per cent of monitored households could not meet basic food needs, a 2026 record.
- Accessible areas only; the north is outside the sample.
- Read with the national OCHA figure, not instead of it.
### Taiz encircled; 32 civilians confirmed killed.
- Registry ID: `yem-un-news-2026-10-20`
- Publisher: UN News
- Source type: human\_rights
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Registry title: Yemen war continues to force families from homes amid hunger and disease
- Editorial note: OHCHR-confirmed civilian deaths are a verified minimum for Taiz governorate, not a total.
- Original: [Open source]()
The UN human rights chief appeals to Houthi fighters around Taiz City to let aid in.
UN News reports that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, appealed to Houthi fighters who he said had encircled Taiz City to allow aid in immediately. He noted that 32 civilians had been confirmed killed across Taiz governorate, including 14 children.
The count is OHCHR's confirmed figure for one governorate. It is a verified minimum, and it is not comparable with the health ministry's casualty register, which covers government-held areas.
#### Takeaways
- OHCHR confirms 32 civilians, including 14 children, killed in Taiz governorate.
- Türk describes Taiz City as encircled by Houthi fighters.
- A verified minimum for one governorate.
### The last main road out of Taiz.
- Registry ID: `yem-un-news-2026-10-13`
- Publisher: UN News
- Source type: news
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Registry title: Yemen: Houthi siege, cholera outbreak and aid cuts put civilians in the crosshairs
- Editorial note: UN News background on the Taiz siege; the road closure is reported, not independently mapped here.
- Original: [Open source]()
UN News reports the Houthis cut the last main road between Taiz and government-held areas in early October.
UN News reports that the Houthis, who have besieged Taiz since 2015, tightened their blockade at the start of October 2026 when they took control of the last main road between Taiz and other government-held areas.
Taiz, Yemen's third-largest city, has been a major battleground between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government since the war began. The report does not give a population count for the encircled city.
#### Takeaways
- The Houthis took the last main road between Taiz and government-held areas in early October 2026.
- Taiz has been besieged since 2015; the 2026 closure tightened it.
- No population figure for the encircled city is given.
### About one-fifth funded.
- Registry ID: `yem-ifrc-appeal-mdrye018`
- Publisher: IFRC
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-01
- Registry title: IFRC Emergency Appeal: Yemen Population Movement (MDRYE018), 1 October 2026
- Editorial note: Read for the funding status it cites from UNHCR; the percentage is a dated snapshot of a rolling figure.
- Original: [Open source]()
The IFRC appeal cites UNHCR on the 2026 plan's funding level.
The IFRC emergency appeal of 1 October 2026 states that, as reported by UNHCR on 22 September, the 2026 Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan was approximately 21 per cent funded against requirements of US$2.16 billion.
The appeal itself responds to population movement caused by the escalation. Funding levels are rolling; earlier OCHA reporting put the plan at 12.7 per cent funded as of May.
#### Takeaways
- The 2026 plan was about 21 per cent funded as of 22 September 2026, per UNHCR as cited by the IFRC.
- Requirements: US$2.16 billion.
- A dated snapshot of a rolling figure.
### One-eighth funded in May.
- Registry ID: `yem-ocha-update-2026-04`
- Publisher: UN OCHA
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-05-14
- Registry title: OCHA Yemen Humanitarian Update, April 2026
- Editorial note: An earlier funding snapshot, kept as a dated reference point.
- Original: [Open source]()
OCHA's April update records how little of the 2026 plan was funded before the escalation.
OCHA's humanitarian update for April 2026, published on 14 May, reports that as of May only 12.7 per cent of the required funding for the 2026 response had been secured, limiting the scale and continuity of assistance.
The figure predates the summer escalation. Later reporting puts the plan at about 21 per cent funded in September.
#### Takeaways
- 12.7 per cent funded as of May 2026.
- A pre-escalation snapshot.
- Funding levels are rolling and must carry their dates.
### Seventy-three, all Yemeni, as of February.
- Registry ID: `yem-hrw-briefing-2026-08-26`
- Publisher: Human Rights Watch
- Source type: human\_rights
- Published: 2026-08-26
- Registry title: Human Rights Watch briefing: Human rights in Yemen and the release of detained humanitarian workers, 26 August 2026
- Editorial note: HRW's dated detention count (February 2026); attribute it, and read later UN counts beside it.
- Original: [Open source]()
HRW's August briefing records the detention count as it stood in February 2026.
Human Rights Watch reports that as of February 2026, 73 UN staff and dozens of other humanitarian workers remained in Houthi detention, all of them Yemeni nationals. Many were arrested without warrants, forcibly disappeared for months and denied access to lawyers.
HRW also records that on 11 February 2025 a World Food Programme aid worker died in Houthi custody. Later UN and WFP statements put the number of detained UN staff at 72 in October 2026.
#### Takeaways
- 73 UN staff, all Yemeni nationals, in Houthi detention as of February 2026, per HRW.
- A WFP aid worker died in Houthi custody on 11 February 2025.
- The October 2026 UN count is 72.
### A counter-offensive, and fronts that will not hold still.
- Registry ID: `yem-msf-2026-10-08`
- Publisher: Médecins Sans Frontières
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-08
- Registry title: MSF: Five things to know about the situation in the south of Yemen today, 8 October 2026
- Editorial note: An operational NGO account; territorial claims are reported as unclear at the time of writing.
- Original: [Open source]()
MSF describes the Houthi advance down the west coast and the government's counter-offensive.
MSF reports that in September 2026 Ansar Allah forces launched a rapid operation down Yemen's western coast, seizing areas including the city of Mocha and the Bab al-Mandab strait, and reaching the vicinity of Taiz with roads to the south blocked.
The internationally recognised government in Aden, backed by Saudi Arabia, announced a counter-offensive on 5 October. On 8 October MSF described territorial control as unclear.
#### Takeaways
- The government announced a counter-offensive on 5 October 2026.
- MSF described territorial control as unclear on 8 October.
- Roads between Taiz and the south were blocked.
### A modelled toll, dated 2021.
- Registry ID: `yem-undp-2021-projection`
- Publisher: Al Jazeera
- Source type: news
- Published: 2021-11-23
- Registry title: Al Jazeera, 23 November 2021: UN report projects Yemen war death toll of 377,000
- Editorial note: A news report of a UNDP projection; a model, not a count, and not current.
- Original: [Open source]()
Al Jazeera reports a UN projection of the war's total death toll by the end of 2021.
Al Jazeera reports that a United Nations report projected in November 2021 that the death toll from Yemen's war would reach 377,000 by the end of 2021, including those killed by indirect and direct causes.
The figure is a projection that mixes direct and indirect deaths. It is not a count, it predates the 2022 truce, and it does not cover the 2026 fighting.
#### Takeaways
- 377,000 is a UN projection to the end of 2021, direct and indirect deaths combined.
- A model, not a count; not a current toll.
- Never add the 2026 casualty figures to it.
### Al Mokha: an aid hub caught in the fighting.
- Registry ID: `yem-wfp-2026-09-17`
- Publisher: World Food Programme
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-09-17
- Registry title: WFP scales up response in Yemen as fighting displaces thousands, 17 September 2026
- Editorial note: WFP's operational account of the fighting in Al Mokha; it does not itself date the capture of the port.
- Original: [Open source]()
WFP reports that clashes in Al Mokha from 9 September breached its premises and cut off distribution points.
WFP reports that since 9 September 2026 clashes in the city of Al Mokha have affected its programmes, offices and facilities: WFP premises were breached and at least 49 food distribution points were made inaccessible.
WFP calls on all parties to protect humanitarian personnel, offices and assets and to allow safe access. Later UN reporting and MSF say the Houthis captured Mokha in September; WFP's statement describes the fighting, not the outcome.
#### Takeaways
- Clashes in Al Mokha from 9 September 2026 breached WFP premises.
- At least 49 WFP food distribution points became inaccessible.
- The capture of Mokha is reported by UN News and MSF, not by this statement.
### March 2026: attacks on Israel tied to the US–Iran war.
- Registry ID: `yem-un-news-2026-04-14`
- Publisher: UN News
- Source type: news
- Published: 2026-04-14
- Registry title: Yemenis are ‘hanging by a thread’ top aid official warns Security Council
- Editorial note: UN News framing of the March 2026 Houthi attacks on Israel; attributed, not a finding on motive.
- Original: [Open source]()
UN News, reporting a Security Council briefing, ties the Houthi attacks on Israel at the end of March to the US–Iran conflict.
UN News reported on 14 April 2026 that, in connection with the US–Iran conflict that preceded a fragile ceasefire, the Houthi movement's military wing launched attacks against Israel at the end of March 2026.
The report frames the attacks as linked to the US–Iran hostilities. It does not quantify the attacks and does not speak to the later 2026 campaign against Saudi-linked shipping.
#### Takeaways
- The Houthis launched attacks against Israel at the end of March 2026, per UN News.
- UN News links them to the US–Iran conflict.
- A news framing; the motive is the Houthis' own to claim.
### 159 released in Sana'a.
- Registry ID: `yem-icrc-2026-10-17`
- Publisher: International Committee of the Red Cross
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-17
- Registry title: ICRC supports release of 159 detainees in Sana'a, 17 October 2026
- Editorial note: A unilateral release of conflict-related detainees; the statement does not say who was released beyond people recently detained in connection with the conflict.
- Original: [Open source]()
The ICRC supported a unilateral release of people detained in connection with the current conflict.
The ICRC reports that on 17 October 2026, 159 people recently detained in connection with the ongoing conflict in Yemen were unilaterally released by the authorities in Sana'a, with ICRC support.
The statement does not say who was released beyond 'people recently detained in connection with the ongoing conflict'. The UN staff count given by the UN Special Envoy on 9 October was 72.
#### Takeaways
- 159 conflict-related detainees were released in Sana'a on 17 October 2026, with ICRC support.
- A unilateral release by the Sana'a authorities.
- The statement names no one; it refers to people recently detained in connection with the conflict.
### The truce's first two months: the lowest toll since 2015.
- Registry ID: `yem-acled-2022-2m`
- Publisher: ACLED
- Source type: research
- Published: 2022-06-14
- Registry title: The UN-Mediated Truce in Yemen: Impacts of the First Two Months
- Editorial note: ACLED's two-month review of the April 2022 truce; a 2022 measurement, not a current toll.
- Original: [Open source]()
ACLED records 400 reported fatalities in the truce's first two months, 85 per cent fewer than in the two months before.
ACLED records 400 total reported fatalities over the first two months of the UN-mediated truce, from 2 April to 2 June 2022 — a decrease of 85 per cent compared with the two months prior and of 87 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier.
April and May 2022 saw the lowest levels of total reported fatalities since ACLED's Yemen coverage began in January 2015, and weekly fatality counts were consistently the lowest since March 2015. The figures describe 2022; they are not a current toll.
#### Takeaways
- 400 reported fatalities in the truce's first two months, 85 per cent fewer than in the two months before, per ACLED.
- April–May 2022 had the lowest reported fatalities since ACLED's Yemen coverage began in 2015.
- A 2022 measurement, not a current toll.
### September 2025: WFP suspends its work in the north.
- Registry ID: `yem-wfp-acr-2025`
- Publisher: World Food Programme
- Source type: humanitarian
- Registry title: WFP Yemen - Yemen Annual Country Report 2025 - 2025 Overview
- Editorial note: WFP's own annual report; read for the date of the suspension of its activities in Houthi-controlled areas. The document does not state its publication date.
- Original: [Open source]()
WFP's report on 2025 dates the suspension of all its activities in areas under the Sana'a-based authorities to September 2025.
The report's timeline for 2025 records that on 31 August security forces raided WFP's offices in northern Yemen, including its country office in Sana'a, detaining several staff members, and that in September WFP suspended all activities in areas under the control of the Sana'a-based authorities.
The report is WFP's own account of its year. The dossier reads northern hunger figures from the suspension on as a data gap, not a lower number.
#### Takeaways
- WFP suspended all activities in areas under the Sana'a-based authorities in September 2025, per its annual report.
- The suspension followed a 31 August raid on WFP offices in the north in which several staff were detained.
- Northern hunger figures are a data gap after the suspension, not an improvement.
### One facility in five can provide maternal and child care.
- Registry ID: `yem-who-appeal-2026`
- Publisher: World Health Organization
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-01-30
- Registry title: Yemen: WHO Health Emergency Appeal 2026
- Editorial note: Facility figures from WHO's HeRAMS 2025 monitoring; written before the 2026 escalation.
- Original: [Open source]()
WHO's 2026 appeal: around 60 per cent of health facilities fully functional, and one in five able to provide maternal and child health services.
According to the Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) 2025, only around 60 per cent of Yemen's health facilities are fully functional, and just one in five can provide maternal and child health services, leaving millions of women with limited access to care, WHO's 2026 appeal says.
The appeal names fuel shortages, import delays and funding constraints among the system-wide constraints on service delivery. It was published in January 2026, before the escalation that began in August.
#### Takeaways
- Just one in five health facilities can provide maternal and child health services (HeRAMS 2025, via WHO).
- Around 60 per cent of facilities are fully functional, close to OCHA's 59.3 per cent.
- Written before the August 2026 escalation.
### The daily casualty toll has doubled.
- Registry ID: `yem-who-sitrep-7`
- Publisher: Yemen health response (situation report posted on ReliefWeb)
- Source type: humanitarian
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Registry title: Conflict Escalation in Yemen - Situation Report #7 (Reporting period: 3 – 11 October 2026 | Issued: 13 October 2026)
- Editorial note: Casualty totals come from the Casualty Register of the health ministry's Health Emergency Operations Centre in Aden and cover government-held (IRG) areas only; areas under the de facto authorities are not accessible, so the report says its figures should be read as a minimum. The report reads as WHO's (it reports WHO's own supplies and funding); ReliefWeb's source tag could not be read.
- Original: [Open source]()
The health response's seventh situation report counts 7,173 casualties since 6 August, including 1,282 deaths.
Between 3 and 11 October the health ministry's Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) in Aden, which covers government-held areas, recorded 2,007 new casualties, 1,684 injured and 323 killed — 223 a day against 114 in the previous period. That brings the total since 6 August to 7,173, including 1,282 deaths. On the eight days with itemised reports, Lahj was the heaviest and deadliest front, with 553 casualties and 110 killed, followed by Taiz (518) and Marib (489).
The report puts displacement at 201,217 people in ten governorates, counted by IOM, with 57 per cent in Taiz, and weekly suspected cholera cases in government-held areas rising from 221 in week 36 to 683 in week 40 — a later series than the 217 and 647 in WHO's release of 13 October, revised as reports arrive. Under the joint response plan, WHO says it has secured US$3.8 million of the US$31 million needed.
#### Takeaways
- 7,173 casualties since 6 August, including 1,282 deaths, recorded by the HEOC to 11 October.
- The daily toll doubled to 223 a day between 3 and 11 October.
- Government-held areas only, and a minimum: areas under the de facto authorities are not accessible.
## Analysis shelf
### Yemen Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2026
- Publisher: UN OCHA
- Type: report
- Why it matters: The national baseline for need, displacement, malnutrition and health-system functionality.
- Position note: Humanitarian source; national figures, not a belligerent narrative.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: National figures begin where the plan meets displacement.
- Alt text: Displaced people in Yemen.
- Credit: Julien Harneis
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Acute food insecurity in government-controlled areas
- Publisher: WFP / FAO / UNICEF (IPC)
- Type: report
- Why it matters: The sharpest recent hunger classification — and the clearest example of why it must not be read as national.
- Position note: Humanitarian source; a government-area figure with a documented northern blind spot.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: One figure for the south, a blind spot for the north.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: national vs government-area hunger.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### World Report 2026 — Yemen
- Publisher: Human Rights Watch
- Type: investigation
- Why it matters: The detention record and the 2025 US airstrike toll, each attributed to the monitor that kept it.
- Position note: Advocacy monitor; documents violations by all parties, no false parity.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: Civilian harm attributed, never adopted as verdict.
- Alt text: War damage in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### UNVIM Situation Report, August 2026
- Publisher: UNVIM / UNOPS
- Type: dataset
- Why it matters: The one mechanism that scores what reaches the Houthi-held north — cargo discharged, not food distributed.
- Position note: Technical UN mechanism; northern ports only, never a national import figure.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: A supply line counted at the quay.
- Alt text: Editorial data surface: 833,181 tonnes discharged at the northern ports in August 2026.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
## Media shelf
### Yemen — areas of control
- Publisher: Wikimedia Commons
- Type: media
- Why it matters: The territorial split — counted south, switched-off north, offshore supply line — that shapes every figure.
- Position note: Reusable orientation map; geography context, not proof of any single front line.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The map behind the arithmetic.
- Alt text: Map of Yemen showing areas of control.
- Credit: Ali Zifan
- Rights / license: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source]()
### Hunger Ward
- Publisher: MTV Documentary Films
- Type: media
- Why it matters: A field record from inside two Yemeni therapeutic feeding centres — the wards where malnutrition figures are counted.
- Position note: Rights-controlled reference; linked, never rehosted.
- Original: [Open source]()
#### Visual provenance
- Caption: The malnutrition figure has a weighing chart behind it.
- Alt text: Therapeutic-food distribution in Yemen.
- Credit: Totally Fine Foundation
- Rights / license: Project editorial graphic; original source linked
- Asset: [View image]()
- Original / provenance: [Open source](