Yemen’s resilience is “not an excuse” for further suffering, UN relief chief tells Security Council
Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Yemen by Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator
13 August 2026
As delivered
Madam President,
I thank the Special Envoy for sobering his briefing and his tireless efforts to advance a political path for Yemen.
This is OCHA’s sixth briefing to this Council this year on Yemen, and I wish I could report a positive shift, but the trajectory of the humanitarian crisis, I’m afraid, remains unchanged.
Hunger is rising, health services are crumbling, and families have exhausted their last coping mechanisms. And now, the convergence of climate shocks and renewed regional tension threatens to deepen this catastrophe.
More than a decade into this conflict, millions of Yemenis face impossible, daily choices: food or medicine, education or work, survival or displacement.
And I’m afraid the toll on women and girls is particularly alarming.
Nearly 11 million women and girls require humanitarian support, and that includes 5.5 million women of reproductive age and over 750,000 pregnant women.
Essential care for them is out of reach: four out of five women lack access to life-saving reproductive health services. With only one in five health facilities providing maternal care, the cost is lethal: three women die every day from preventable, pregnancy-related complications.
The health system is at a breaking point.
Facilities lack basic supplies and personnel. Disease outbreaks are surging. In Marib alone, authorities have declared a health emergency due to a measles outbreak – the second-highest case count globally this year.
Madam President,
Food insecurity is worsening.
Over half the population is experiencing acute food insecurity. Six million people – the highest number globally – face “Emergency” levels of deprivation, bordering on famine. In June, over 60 per cent of households reported inadequate food consumption, a trend affecting every single governorate.
While these statistics are staggering, they must not numb us. This unacceptable severity cannot become the new norm.
The drivers are clear: regional tensions inflating prices, economic decline eroding livelihoods, and a critical shortfall in humanitarian funding.
And meanwhile, I’m afraid, a new threat is emerging.
El Niño conditions forecast a 40 per cent reduction in rainfall across key agricultural areas. This will devastate crops, water availability and rural livelihoods, compounding the impacts of extreme heat and water stress in a country already one of the most vulnerable to climate change.
Madam President,
Access remains a significant hurdle.
As you’ve heard, 73 UN colleagues remain detained by the Houthi de facto authorities, along with workers and former workers from NGOs, civil society and diplomatic missions.
Their families live with uncertainty every day. Their release is more than an institutional demand, it is an appeal to our shared humanity: let them return safely to their families and let us create the environment in which support and services can be accessed by those most in need – safely, independently, impartially.
Between July 2025 and July this year, over 200 humanitarian access incidents were recorded across the country. Interference, violence against staff, movement restrictions continue to impede, delay, constrain relief operations.
Ahead of the General Assembly, I will be laying out critical access asks for crises around the world and the specific areas and people we can reach if we remove these barriers.
Madam President,
We know aid that saves lives.
In 2025, we reached an average of 5.3 million people monthly in Yemen.
However, funding shortages – fuelled by uncertainty and a lack of confidence – have now crippled our operations.
With the humanitarian appeal barely 20 per cent funded, the calculation is simple: when funding drops, rations are cut, clinics close and protection services disappear.
So I thank our largest donors – the European Commission, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Germany, and South Korea – and those supporting the Yemen Humanitarian Fund and the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). I have just allocated $10 million in initial CERF funding for food security, but this is just a stopgap, it’s not a solution.
So my three asks of you:
Firstly, to donors: Provide flexible, predictable funding now. We have the capacity to deliver; we need the resources to bridge the chasm between desperate need and the current support we are getting.
Secondly, to all parties: Protect civilians and ensure principled humanitarian action. Specifically, I call again for the immediate, safe release of the 73 UN colleagues, as well as the NGO and civil society workers, currently detained by the Houthi de facto authorities. Their families – and our shared humanity – demand their return.
Third and finally, to this Council: Please maintain your focus on Yemen. Your unity and advocacy are essential to prevent further suffering and to secure space for genuine progress.
The people of Yemen have shown extraordinary resilience, but resilience can never be an excuse for the world to demand that they simply endure more. They deserve – and we must ensure they get – dignity, opportunity and hope.
Thank you.