'Running for their lives': 200,000 flee Yemen fighting as hunger closes in

More than 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes since fighting in Yemen intensified in recent weeks, according to data released on Wednesday by the United Nations' International Organization for Migration. The figure has surged from 76,000 in mid-September, with nearly all of the displaced fleeing since fighting began in early September between the Houthi movement and Saudi-backed government forces. 'People are running for their lives and finding nowhere safe to go,' said IOM Director General Amy Pope, calling for more funding for food and shelter.

The renewed conflict is the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022. The Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, seized the country's entire Red Sea coast last month from forces of the internationally recognised government based in Aden. People have been displaced across ten governorates, with Taiz the hardest hit. More than 3,700 people have also fled by sea to Djibouti, a crossing that underlines how few safe options remain on land.

Humanitarian agencies warn that displacement is compounding an already extreme food crisis. On Friday the UN World Food Programme said three in four families in parts of Yemen were going hungry from the 'absolutely devastating' impact of the surge in fighting. In Marib, an IOM assessment found families sleeping in the open, exposed to violence and airstrikes, with women and girls raising the shortage of appropriate latrines. Around 45 per cent of assessed households had been displaced before and had lost assets and livelihoods, leaving them at risk of harmful coping strategies including child labour.

The agency is providing emergency shelter, household items, cash, clean water, sanitation and protection services, but warns that further displacement is possible in the coming days. Casualty reporting from the front lines remains a minimum estimate, hampered by communication blackouts and protection risks. For families who have now fled more than once, the immediate need is not a political settlement on paper but a safe place to sleep, water that is clean, and food that arrives before hunger does the work of the war.