Yemen remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and aid operation. Six years of escalating conflict, economic collapse, disease, natural disasters and the breakdown of public institutions and services have left millions of Yemenis hungry, ill and destitute. Now, COVID-19 poses an additional threat to their lives. A staggering 20.7 million people, 66 per cent of the population, require some form of humanitarian assistance in 2021.
Women and girls are acutely vulnerable. An estimated 73 per cent of the over 4 million people displaced in Yemen are women and children, while approximately 30 per cent of displaced households are now headed by women, compared to 9 per cent before the escalation of the conflict in 2015.
UNFPA is calling for urgent funding of $100 million to provide reproductive healthcare and women’s protection services until the end of 2021.
