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WFP: 70% of IDPs in Yemen Have No Access to Minimum Food Needs

Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hodeidah receive humanitarian aid donated by the WFP in the northern province of Hajjah. (AFP)
Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hodeidah receive humanitarian aid donated by the WFP in the northern province of Hajjah. (AFP)
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WFP: 70% of IDPs in Yemen Have No Access to Minimum Food Needs

Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hodeidah receive humanitarian aid donated by the WFP in the northern province of Hajjah. (AFP)
Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hodeidah receive humanitarian aid donated by the WFP in the northern province of Hajjah. (AFP)

The World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday revealed that the food insecurity situation in Yemen remains consistently at alarming levels, where 70% of internally displaced persons (IDPs) struggle to access their minimum food needs.

The report came while humanitarian organizations in Yemen await President Donald Trump’s decision to designate the Houthi militias as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) to take effect.

“IDPs were particularly affected by the food insecurity situation in Yemen,” the UN agency said in its Yemen Food Security Update.

“70% of IDP households struggled to access their minimum food needs, and severe food deprivation increased to 42% by the end of 2024,” it noted.

The WFP said IDPs in camp exhibited a higher prevalence of poor food consumption (49%) compared to those living in host communities (39%).

The food insecurity situation in Yemen remains consistently at alarming levels, where 64% of surveyed households were unable to obtain their minimum food needs in December 2024, found the report.

It said households in areas under the legitimate government exhibited relatively higher prevalence of inadequate food consumption (67%) compared to Houthi-controlled areas (63%).

The Program named the key drivers that led to the deteriorating food insecurity situation in Yemen. They include macroeconomic upheavals, humanitarian assistance gaps particularly the pause of food assistance across most districts in Houthi-held areas and the limited livelihood opportunities.

In addition, localized conflict during the last three months of 2024 contributed to a further deterioration in the food security situation, particularly in frontline districts of Taiz, Dhale and Abyan.

The WFP report showed that severe levels of food deprivation (poor food consumption) reached 38% by the end of the year (40% in government areas and 37% in Houthi-controlled areas).

Also, all governorates in Yemen exceeded the “very high” threshold of more than 20% for poor food consumption in December, except for the Houthi-held Sanaa governorate.

To meet food shortages in December, the WFP said 52% households in Houthi-controlled areas and 44% in government areas adopted severe food-based coping strategies (higher than 20).

Nationally, common practices included reducing meal sizes (72%) and consuming less preferred foods (66%).

Therefore, the program showed that severe livelihood challenges were evident, with strategies such as begging and selling homes becoming prevalent.

In Houthi-controlled areas, the WFP said it scaled up its Targeted Emergency Food Assistance (TEFA) program from 1.4 million people to 2.8 million people in 70 districts as of the second TEFA cycle, which started in mid-January 2025.

The resumption of regular food assistance in Houthi-held areas contributed to a notable improvement in households food consumption and coping levels as observed in September and November.

In areas under the control of the legitimate government, the UN agency said the Yemeni rial depreciated by 26% during 2024 and lost 71% of its value against the US dollar over the past five years.

This depreciation has primarily driven fuel prices to unprecedented levels and caused the cost of the minimum food basket (MFB) to rise by 21% between January-December 2024.

Meanwhile, fuel imports through all Yemeni seaports in 2024 remained at a similar level to that recorded in 2023, while food imports increased by 10% compared to the previous year, the report said.

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Syrian Government Forces Begin Withdrawing from Sweida

Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
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Syrian Government Forces Begin Withdrawing from Sweida

Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri

Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel.

Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria's Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement.

Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement, reported The Associated Press.

Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus

The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military.

The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida.

The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syria’s new rulers to consolidate control of the country after an offensive by opposition factions ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in footage on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel's actions as sowing division.

“We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities,” he said, specifically addressing Druze people in Syria. "We reject any attempt — foreign or domestic — to sow division within our ranks. We are all partners in this land, and we will not allow any group to distort the beautiful image that Syria and its diversity represent.”

He said Israel sought to break Syrian unity and turn the country into a theater of chaos but that Syrians were rejecting division.

He said Syrians did not fear renewed war but sought the path of Syrian interest over destruction. “We assigned local factions and Druze spiritual leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in (Sweida), recognizing the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid dragging the country" into a new war, he said.

No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces.

Israel threatens further escalation

Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad's fall.

That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the “painful blows have begun.”

Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders, saying it doesn’t want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

Kats said in a statement that the Israeli army “will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area — and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood.”

An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a “multitude of scenarios" and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights.