Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current level of starvation in Yemen.

Yemen continues to face huge levels of severe food insecurity and malnutrition. In 2025 17.1 million people (49% of the population) are estimated to be severely food insecure, (a slight reduction from 17.6 million people in 2024), and 8.6 million of those will need nutritional support, (an increase from 7.7 million in 2024). An estimated 3.5 million children aged under 5 years, and pregnant and lactating women, face acute malnutrition due in many cases to insufficient purchasing power to buy available food. Nearly half of Yemen's children under five suffer from moderate to severe stunting. The 2025 UN led Humanitarian Response Plan launched last week requires $2.47 billion to address these challenges and wider humanitarian needs in Yemen.

Responding to Yemen's humanitarian crisis is a priority for the UK. This year, the UK will contribute £144 million in humanitarian aid to Yemen which includes supporting 864,000 people with cash transfers to buy food, and support 718 health facilities with the medicines, vaccines, and nutritional supplements they need to treat 700,000 severely malnourished children. The UK invests in responses that integrate health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and food security in areas in need through our two flagship programmes Women and Children (W&C) and Food Security Safety Nets (FSSN).