Yemen Monitor/ Newsroom
Four UN agencies said on Sunday that acute malnutrition is rapidly increasing in areas under the control of the legitimate government.
This came in a joint report issued by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Food Programme, and the World Health Organization.
The organizations confirmed that acute malnutrition is rapidly increasing in areas under the control of the Yemeni government, with the western coast experiencing “extremely critical” levels for the first time.
According to the report: The number of children under five years are suffering from acute malnutrition or wasting increased by 34% compared to the previous year in all areas under the control of the Yemeni government, affecting more than 600,000 children, including 120,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
It is believed that this sharp increase is due to the combined impact of disease outbreaks (cholera and measles), severe food insecurity, limited access to safe drinking water, and economic deterioration. In addition, in the same region, it was found that about 223,000 pregnant and lactating women were suffering from acute malnutrition in 2024.
The report states that the most severe level in the classification of acute malnutrition according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is extremely critical acute malnutrition (IPC Phase 5), which applies to areas where the prevalence of acute malnutrition exceeds 30%.
It says that for the first time, this level has been reported in the southern lowlands of Hodeidah (Khokha and Hays districts) and the lowlands of Taiz (Mokha district) during the period from November 2023 to June 2024. In Hodeidah, the prevalence of acute malnutrition increased to 33.9% from 25.9% on an annual basis.
