WFP says 74% of households in accessible Yemen areas go hungry

The World Food Programme said Friday that 74% of households in accessible government-held areas of Yemen cannot meet their basic food needs, a record for the year, as renewed fighting disrupts aid access and displaces people. The estimate applies to areas the agency can reach, not to all of Yemen, and WFP said the deteriorating situation has made it harder to deliver food in frontline regions. WFP Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations Matthew Hollingworth said the latest escalation threatens to deepen food insecurity as it persists. The agency said families fleeing fighting have arrived near Aden and around Taiz without food or water after leaving their homes. A separate nationwide estimate cited by WFP says 18.3 million people face severe food insecurity, while 2.2 million children under five are acutely malnourished. The agency said fighting has cut off its access to about 350,000 people in frontline areas. It is scaling up emergency food and nutrition assistance, with a target of reaching up to 1.5 million people affected by the escalation, but says it needs $109 million for that response.