Yemen's Displaced Families Skip Meals as New Offensive Deepens Hunger Crisis

More than a decade of war has left Yemen's population staggering under overlapping crises, and the latest round of fighting is pushing already vulnerable families further into destitution. A renewed Houthi offensive that began in early September has redrawn front lines across the country's west and south, displacing tens of thousands and cutting off access to food, water, and basic sanitation for those already living on the edge.

Mohamed Saed, a 46-year-old teacher, embodies the quiet desperation that has become routine for millions of Yemenis. He has not received a salary in years, has been displaced three or four times since the conflict began, and now shares a single room in Taiz with his wife and five children. More than a year behind on rent, he often tells his children he has already eaten when he has gone without food, so they will not worry. "We no longer eat three meals," he told Al Jazeera. "Maybe two meals and sometimes one meal."

His family's struggle predates the latest escalation, but the new fighting has made survival even more precarious. According to UNICEF, nearly 134,000 people have been forced from their homes since early September, including an estimated 73,000 children. Each new wave of displacement places additional strain on host communities and humanitarian operations that were already stretched thin.

Yemen has been effectively partitioned since the Iran-aligned Houthis captured the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. The Houthis govern the north and west, where the majority of Yemenis reside, while the internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, controls most of the south and east. This division has created fragmented systems of governance, inconsistent aid delivery, and repeated cycles of violence that have worn down civilian infrastructure and household resilience alike.

The current escalation began on September 3, when Houthi forces launched a major offensive west of Taiz. Within days, Houthi fighters entered the port city of Mocha and have since taken control of nearly all of Yemen's Red Sea coastline, extending down to the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a strategic chokepoint for global shipping. Saudi Arabia has responded with hundreds of air strikes, while the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on Saudi territory, raising fears of a broader regional conflagration.

The human cost has been severe. The World Health Organization reports that 838 people have been killed and more than 3,600 injured since early August, when the Houthis began striking government forces. Most of those casualties have occurred since the ground offensive began on September 3. In the week ending September 26 alone, 164 people were killed. UNICEF has verified that at least 15 children have been killed and 14 injured since September 3, with three more reported missing.

For families caught in the path of the fighting, escape has meant abandoning nearly everything. Ruqqaya Saeed, a 25-year-old mother of eight, fled Zaghar in the Maqbanah area west of Taiz as rockets, shells, and landmines threatened her family from all sides. "We left our homes, and we left our livestock, the donkey and the chickens," she said from al-Shaqadif camp near Taiz city. "We left everything up to God."

Life in the camp offers little relief. Saeed says no aid organisation has delivered food to her family, and they rely on handouts from charitable individuals. She borrowed money to buy a tarpaulin for shelter, but rainwater has soaked through it twice, drenching their clothes. Her children are suffering from diarrhoea, colds, and dysentery. "We don't have water for them, not even clean water," she said. Dysentery, an intestinal infection spread by contaminated water and poor sanitation, can be fatal for young children due to dehydration. Without blankets for warmth, Saeed treats her children at home using only water, salt, and sugar. The camp has no toilets, forcing women to wait until nightfall and walk to the mountainside or another isolated spot.

The scale of the hunger crisis is staggering. In a country of roughly 43 million people, more than 18.3 million face acute food insecurity in 2026, according to the United Nations. Children are among the most affected. Even before the latest fighting, more than 2.2 million children under five were projected to be acutely malnourished this year, with over half a million suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form, according to UNICEF's Louise Wateridge. She warned that the conflict is fuelling a vicious cycle: fighting drives hunger, and hunger leaves children more vulnerable to the effects of conflict.

In government-controlled areas, nearly five million people—about half the population there—faced crisis levels of hunger or worse between March and May, including 1.4 million in emergency conditions, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global standard for measuring food insecurity. The IPC projected that conditions would deteriorate during the June to September lean season, with 5.3 million people facing crisis conditions or worse, including 1.6 million in emergency conditions. Even after the harvest, it expects 5.4 million to remain at crisis levels or worse from October to December.

Enas Abdullah Abdo, a 23-year-old mother of three, fled Hadhran on the second day of fighting. "Every hour, the shelling and clashes on us increased, and then when the shells eventually reached the houses, we were forced to leave," she said. With cars unable to reach them, the family set out on foot and walked until they found transport. "When we left, we didn't take anything," Abdo said. Like thousands of others, she now faces an uncertain future in a displacement camp, dependent on dwindling aid and the generosity of strangers.

The combination of active combat, disrupted supply routes, and insufficient humanitarian funding has created conditions that aid agencies describe as catastrophic. Roads and ports have been damaged or rendered inaccessible by fighting, making it difficult to deliver food, medicine, and clean water to those who need it most. The Bab al-Mandeb strait, now largely under Houthi control, is a critical artery for commercial and aid shipments, and any disruption there could ripple across global supply chains while further isolating Yemen's population.

For families like Saed's, Saeed's, and Abdo's, the daily struggle for food is not merely a symptom of war but a central feature of it. Parents skip meals so their children can eat. Mothers treat dysentery with salt, sugar, and hope. Teachers who once shaped young minds now spend their days searching for the next meal. As front lines shift and diplomatic efforts stall, millions of Yemenis remain trapped between hunger and violence, with little prospect of relief.