Yemen: Hunger, Another War Wound

Fatima and her son prepare a fishing net on a boat in Khor Omeira bay, Yemen, on 12 February. Fatima has nine children. In order to provide for them, she makes a living from fishing. Although her village was devastated by armed conflict in Yemen, Fatima returned to resume her livelihood, buying a boat with money she earned from selling fish. The conflict—between Houthi Shia Muslim rebels and a Sunni Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia—dates from 2014, and has led to what UNICEF has termed the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Some 20.1 million people (almost two-thirds of the population) required food assistance at the beginning of 2020, with approximately 80 percent of the population relying on humanitarian aid. In 2020 conflict intensified, and the situation was made worse by unprecedented heavy rainfall, which made some 300,000 people homeless; locust infestations that destroyed crops, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.