Yemen appeals for urgent global aid as hunger crisis deepens

Chairman of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al-Alimi speaks to reporters during a briefing at the embassy of Yemen in Riyadh, on January 27, 2024. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 13 August 2025
Follow

Yemen appeals for urgent global aid as hunger crisis deepens

  • Yemen’s UN envoy Abdullah Al-Saadi said the loss of oil revenues, which once made up 70 percent of public income, has crippled state services and worsened living conditions for millions

DUBAI: Following the UN warning that food insecurity in Yemen has reached “disastrous” levels, the country’s government told the Security Council it is on the brink of economic collapse and urgently needs international support to avert further humanitarian catastrophe.

Yemen’s UN envoy Abdullah Al-Saadi said the loss of oil revenues, which once made up 70 percent of public income, has crippled state services and worsened living conditions for millions already struggling with hunger and displacement, state news agency SABA reported on Tuesday. 

Nearly half of Yemen’s children under five suffer acute malnutrition, with many already dying in displacement camps, the UN said. The government warned that the economic crisis, compounded by conflict, climate shocks, and declining aid, is pushing more people toward famine and eroding any prospects for recovery.

Al-Saadi urged donor nations and organizations to step up funding ahead of a planned international food security conference in October, saying Yemen “stands on the threshold of a difficult phase” and cannot stabilize without sustained external assistance.


Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus

Updated 13 sec ago
Follow

Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus

  • The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”