Growing concerns for Yemenis battered by relentless rain and flooding

In a joint alert, UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, and UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, said that rising waters had shattered people’s lives in several Yemeni governorate and particularly in Hudaydah, Hajjah, Sa’ada and Taizz. The northern governorate of Marib has also been affected.

“Homes, shelters, and belongings have been swept away,” the UN agencies reported, adding that within 72 hours of the floods, more than 80,000 people received emergency food rations, hygiene items and women’s sanitary products. “These items offer some immediate relief from the hardships caused by these catastrophic events,” said the UN aid teams, before warning that more torrential rains – which began in late June – are forecast to continue into September.

Staggering needs

Today, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reports that more than 18.2 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, just under half the total population of the country.

“The devastating floods have increased people’s needs, which are tremendous,” said Enshrah Ahmed, UNFPA Representative to Yemen. Although aid teams are working flat out they remain deeply worried about the scale of rising needs and severe weather conditions forecasted. “The coming weeks and months will be critical to ensuring affected families can pick themselves up and, at the very least, recover their lives,” Mr. Ahmed said.

Since early August, more than 180,000 people have been affected by the flooding and at least 50,000 people have been displaced in Hudaydah governorate alone – a figure that is likely to rise in the coming days, UNICEF and UNFPA warned.

Supplies and funding needed

Challenges for aid teams include damaged roads, landmines and unexploded ordnance in frontline and civilian areas. The unseasonably heavy rains have also depleted relief supplies distributed by UN agency Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) teams, who need $4.9 million urgently to scale up the emergency response.

In 2024, more than 82 per cent of people assisted by RRM teams have been severely affected or displaced by climate-related shocks, UNFPA and UNICEF noted.

“The situation in the flooded areas is devastating. UNICEF and partners are on the ground providing urgently needed support to those impacted. The role of the Rapid Response Teams is critical in times of distress such as this one,” said Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Representative to Yemen.

Created in 2018, the aim of the RRM was to provide a minimum package of immediate, critical life-saving assistance during human-made or natural disasters to newly displaced persons, and people in displacement sites or hard-to-reach areas.

Simmering crisis

Even before this latest emergency, needs in Yemen were immense and linked to a protracted political, humanitarian and developmental crisis since uprisings broke out in 2011. The situation escalated into conflict in 2015 involving a Saudi-led coalition siding with Government forces against Houthi opposition forces and their allies but a UN-brokered ceasefire – which lapsed in 2022 – held as peace talks continued. The Houthi rebels, who are also known as Ansar Allah, also began attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea – a crucial route for global trade – following the eruption of war in Gaza last October. Deep concerns remain that fighting may erupt once again.