UN News Today 25 September 2026 |

Yemen violence deepens concerns over child hunger crisis

Aid agencies in Yemen have warned about the growing hunger emergency sparked by renewed fighting between Houthi opposition forces and Government troops, after mobile health clinics reported that hundreds of children displaced by the violence are suffering the deadliest form of malnutrition.

Of nearly 2,900 children screened, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that more than one in four are acutely malnourished, while around 200 were sick with severe acute malnutrition, which is even more dangerous. 

Approximately 130,000 people have fled clashes in the southwest since fighting erupted in recent weeks. That number includes around 71,000 children, most from Taiz governorate.

UNICEF representative in Yemen, Akhil Iyer, described the ordeal of one displaced family:

“We spoke to Haifa, a young mother who fled Yemen’s west coast as well, and she told us that the guns, the sounds of gunfire were closing in on her house, as her house was shaking. She told us that she didn’t have time to think, she just knew that she had to run and run quickly with her family. Today, she and her family live in extreme heat in a side of a tent with no source of income and they are struggling for food and medicine.”

Providing healthcare for all those exhausted by repeated displacement is vitally important. But reaching communities with the highest health needs is becoming “increasingly difficult”, the UN World Health Organization said.

Sudan needs urgent support as El Niño compounds food insecurity: FAO

To Sudan, where funding shortages are limiting UN efforts to help communities impacted by ongoing war and displacement, just as El Niño threatens to bring 30 to 40 per cent less rainfall than usual.

In an alert, the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, warned of worsening food security, for farmers, pastoralists and fishing communities in regions largely reclaimed by Government forces, during the protracted war with former paramilitary allies, the RSF.

The agency has several ways of supporting the most vulnerable, such as vaccinating millions of livestock and providing goats to displaced women-headed households and mothers, so that children have a ready supply of nutritious milk.

With more, here’s the agency’s Rein Paulsen:

“The things that we do are really to try and mitigate the impacts of rainfall losses and drought on livestock by ensuring essentially healthy animals to the extent possible. So, this is about ensuring that the body weight of animals are retained, that they’re vaccinated against the types of diseases that will compromise their health, that they have access to animal feed concentrate.”

Another successful ongoing project that’s brought investment returns of 30 to one involves purchasing drought-resistant seed for farmers. From an initial $17 million outlay, farmers produced sorghum crops worth more than $500 million.

This year, the agency needs $193 million to support its initiatives. It is currently only 23 per cent funded. 

Occupied West Bank: new demolitions deepen ethnic cleansing fears – OHCHR

The situation in the occupied West Bank continues to deteriorate, the UN human rights office has said, pointing to the “mass destruction” of Palestinian villages and forcible transfer of residents in Msafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills.

In a call for an immediate halt to the demolitions, the UN Office, OHCHR, said that Israeli bulldozers demolished homes, farm buildings, water tanks and solar panels in the village of Jinba on Wednesday.

“The forcible transfer of a civilian population from their land by an occupying power is a war crime,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of OHCHR in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

Three more villages in Msafer Yatta have already been “almost entirely” destroyed in September 2026, OHCHR said, highlighting fears of ethnic cleansing in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Overall, there are 12 villages in Msafer Yatta housing over 1,100 Palestinians, most of whom have owned and lived on the land for generations

Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes and infrastructure have displaced 1,500 people in the occupied West Bank so far this year, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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