Special -

The truce sponsored by the United Nations succeeded in reducing the intensity of the fighting between the Yemeni government and the Houthis, but the humanitarian crisis is still grinding more than 19 million Yemenis out of 30 million.

Yemenis are struggling to secure a living after 8 years of fierce war that broke out after the Houthis took control of the capital, Sana'a, in September 2014, before the war began in March 2015, in an attempt to restore former President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

The fighting has disrupted basic services, such as access to health care, education and drinking water, while the internationally recognized government, which has the interim capital of Aden, has been unable to address the humanitarian crisis.

The humanitarian situation deteriorated after the government moved the headquarters of the Central Bank from Sanaa to Aden in the south of the country in 2016, to prevent the Houthis from paying the salaries of more than a million employees in the administrative sector.

A child carries water bottles to her tent in a displacement camp near the capital, Sana'a (Reuters)

Slight improvement

In 2022, the truce gave Yemenis hope, as it allowed the regular entry of fuel through the country's western port of Hodeidah, which is under Houthi control, ending one of the most haunting daily crises.

This made it possible to operate flights between the airports of Sana'a and Amman, to shorten the travel of Yemenis abroad, including the sick and the elderly, as they used to travel rugged mountain roads in 15 hours to reach the airports of Aden (south) or Seiyun (east).

The number of civilian casualties has also decreased.

According to the UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, the truce period (April 2-October 2) witnessed the lowest number of casualties recorded since the beginning of the war, and internal displacement decreased.

The national currency witnessed slight stability after its collapse to its lowest levels.

This was attributed to the Saudi and Emirati promises to grant the Central Bank a deposit of $3 billion, and the government's resumption of oil exports.


The specter of hunger rears its head

The United Nations warned of the decline of those gains with the collapse of the armistice, and the erosion of the purchasing power of Yemeni families during the year 2023 in light of the economic turmoil.

A report by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said some 21.6 million people would need assistance.

He explained that about 17.3 million people are estimated to need food security, 20.2 million need health services, and 15.3 million need clean water and sanitation services.

Yemen imports 90% of its basic needs, and the Russian-Ukrainian war has caused an increase in food prices.

Muhammad Masoud, a teacher in a government school in Dhamar Governorate (central Yemen), who supports a family of 6, says that the price hike and the halt in paying salaries was a disaster whose repercussions were mitigated by humanitarian aid, but the specter of hunger appeared in its head again.

He adds to Al-Jazeera Net, "We used to receive a food basket every month, and since 2022 we have been receiving a basket every two months and sometimes every 3 months. We spent all our savings and did not find regular work. We have no hope."

A spokeswoman for the WFP's regional office, Reem Nada, told Al Jazeera Net that the program was forced to reduce food aid to Yemenis, as a result of funding gaps, global inflation and the effects of the Ukrainian war.

She added, "We are forced to reduce the aid provided to five million people to less than 50% of daily needs, and to reduce aid to 8 million people by 25%, and the activities of resilience and livelihood programs, nutrition programs and school feeding for 4 million people will stop."

International organizations talk about security and bureaucratic obstacles that prevent stable access to aid (Reuters)

Restrictions on aid distribution

According to the Office of Humanitarian Affairs report, the environment for humanitarian work remains severely constrained, as bureaucratic hurdles continue to delay and impede the delivery of aid.

Over the course of 2022, security incidents increased, including car thefts, kidnappings, and attacks on humanitarian workers.

A senior employee of a United Nations agency told Al-Jazeera Net, preferring to remain anonymous for security considerations, that the Houthis imposed severe restrictions on their work, amounting to collecting sensitive information about them, and threatened to detain them if the agency moved its headquarters from Sana'a to Aden.

And last May, the United Nations called on the Houthis to immediately release two of its employees who have been detained since November 2021, saying that their whereabouts are still unknown.


Homeless displaced

Images of the Yemeni tragedy are evident in the displacement camps, which lack the basic necessities of life.

According to the latest UN statistics, more than 4.3 million Yemenis have fled their homes to find safety elsewhere within their country.

The latest statement by the Displaced Persons Camps Management Unit (governmental) called for saving 81,000 displaced families from the dangers of death due to cold and frost waves, as these families face winter with simple capabilities and destroyed and damaged shelter.

According to the unit, 49,000 families do not receive food in the camps, while 134 camps are threatened with eviction, in addition to 385 families currently living without shelter.

For his part, a statement by the Houthi Humanitarian Affairs Coordination and Management Council - reached Al Jazeera Net - said that the number of displaced people in the group's control areas rose to 5 million and 159 thousand, including one million and 168 thousand who do not receive aid.

More than 2.2 million Yemeni children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition (Anatolia)

Epidemics from ancient times

Survival in Yemen has become more like a miracle, in light of the outbreak of epidemics, half of the health system has been disrupted due to war, lack of funding and the outbreak of COVID-19, and 19.7 million people in need of health care are at risk.

Epidemics re-emerged despite the world getting rid of them in the last century, such as polio, mumps, measles, tetanus, hepatitis C, cholera, malaria and fevers.

The war caused 8 million Yemenis to suffer from psychological problems, according to the World Health Organization.

About 2.2 million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition, including more than 500,000 children who struggle to survive, only 50% of whom reach therapeutic feeding centers due to the difficulty of their families obtaining transportation costs.

Nashwan Al-Husami, adviser to the Ministry of Health for Quality in Taiz Governorate, told Al-Jazeera Net that the absence of hygiene and improvement services, the collapse of the health sector and the migration of health personnel outside the country caused the spread of epidemics.

He adds that the reform of the health sector is linked to stopping the war, but currently the state does not have a clear program, as it is unable to provide diesel to generate electricity for hospitals, in addition to the rest of the needs such as medicines and medical supplies.