Vital Interventions to Respond to the Nutritional Crisis

By 2026, 23.1 million people, or 65.4% of the population, will need vital humanitarian aid.

In a country with a population of around 40 million, more than 18 million people face acute food insecurity—nearly half of the total estimated population—including 5.8 million in emergency situations, and 40,000 people could fall into catastrophic food insecurity. The country now has 2.5 million children under the age of five suffering from acute malnutrition, a serious and potentially fatal medical condition. Acute malnutrition severely weakens the immune system and stunts physical development. Nearly half of children under the age of five in Yemen are stunted*.

In this emergency context, Action Against Hunger teams are observing an alarming increase in child malnutrition, exacerbated by the closure of more than 3,000 nutrition treatment sites in North Yemen* and the imminent depletion of essential supplies.

In the governorate of Hodeida, and particularly in the district of Al Khawkhah, where Action Against Hunger supports several health centers, the situation is reaching a critical threshold. The growing influx of families from neighboring areas deprived of services is increasing the pressure on local health facilities.

*Yemen | Global Humanitarian Overview 2026 | Humanitarian Action 

Health Centers Under Pressure in the Governorate of Hodeida

In the district of Al Khawkhah, located near the front line, the nutritional situation is alarming. Thousands of displaced families live there in precarious conditions, exposed to food insecurity and lack of access to healthcare. 

At the Al Marashidah health care center, located in the Al Khawkhah district, Action Against Hunger teams are conducting consultations for both children and adults. In addition to administering essential vaccines and treating the most common diseases (malaria, diarrhea, anemia, and tuberculosis) they also screen, treat, and monitor cases of malnutrition in children under five, while providing nutritional and psychosocial support to mothers.  

At this health center, the increase in the number of consultations attests to the scale of the crisis. Recently, attendance has almost tripled, reaching up to 100 patients per day. For Abdo Salem, director of the Al Marashidah health center supported by Action Against Hunger, the conclusion is clear: “If this center did not exist, malnourished children would have no access to care, and there would be deaths,” he says. 

This primary health care center is located in the heart of an area where humanitarian needs are immense. It serves a dozen or so villages, providing essential access to health services in a context where alternatives are very limited. In the region, Action Against Hunger also supports the centers in Abu Zahir, Al Qatabah, and  Moshig, as well as a Nutritional Stabilization Center dedicated to children suffering from severe acute malnutrition with complications.  

Together, these facilities are often the only health services available to thousands of vulnerable people, particularly families displaced by war. 

Ali, Father of a Family Displaced in the Al Saad Camp

The Al Saad camp, served by the Al Marashidah health center, is home to more than 400 displaced families.  

Among them is Ali Ahmed, 40, who lives with his wife and seven children, aged between 12 and just 9 months. Like thousands of Yemeni families, Ali and his family were forced to flee their village due to fighting, attacks, and the constant threat of landmines.

For five years now, they have been surviving in extreme poverty. Ali occasionally manages to get a day’s work in a restaurant or in the fields, earning the equivalent of 5,000 Yemeni rials, which is not enough to support his family. Since the start of the war, the cost of basic goods has skyrocketed: essential items, particularly flour, now sold for around 50,000 rials per bag , have become almost unaffordable. “A bag of flour costs more than I earn in several days. Before the war, we could buy everything; now, we can buy almost nothing,” says Ali.  

This surge in prices is plunging households into chronic food insecurity, with a shortage of vegetables and nutritious foods. Adding to this precariousness is the difficulty of accessing water: the nearest source is far from the camp and, with no means of transportation, families like Ali’s have to walk long distances to bring back insufficient quantities of water. In this context, cases of malnutrition are skyrocketing. And Ali’s children are not spared. 

In the Al Saad camp, community volunteers trained by Action Against Hunger conduct weekly visits to screen children, distribute nutritional supplements, monitor at-risk cases, and inform families. Thanks to their visit, Ali’s family was referred to the Al Marashidah center. “The volunteers came to see us as soon as we arrived. We didn’t know anything about the Al Marashidah center, so they explained it to us,” Ali explains. During this visit, the volunteers detected a case of malnutrition in one of his children and referred him to the center for vital care. “At the center, they welcomed us, checked his measurements, and said he needed to be hospitalized… He was really very weak,” Ali recounts.  

His child was immediately admitted and received nutritional treatment and medication, which helped stabilize his condition.  

Today, volunteers continue to monitor his case in the camp. “A team of volunteers comes to us to examine my son, assess his condition, give him nutritional supplements, and make sure he gets his vaccinations. His situation was critical. Today, his condition is improving, he is doing better, even if he is not yet fully recovered,” he says. 

To date, two of the family’s children are still being monitored by Action Against Hunger volunteers.

Volunteers: Front-Line Actors in Humanitarian Response

Community volunteers play a decisive role in the fight against malnutrition. They enable isolated families to be reached, bad practices to be corrected, and early screening to be facilitated. 

Every month, in the district of Al Khawkhah, community volunteers trained by Action Against Hunger reach between 800 and 1,000 families. This is an immense achievement in an area where distances are long and travel is difficult. Ahmed Youssef supervises the volunteers at the Moshig health center for Action Against Hunger, supporting more than ten villages on his own. He states bluntly, “Without awareness, it would be a disaster: diseases would spread, severe cases would increase, and children would die.”  

This awareness-raising relies in particular on volunteers called “lead mothers.” Coming from the community, these women volunteers, trained by Action Against Hunger, are helping to transform deeply rooted feeding practices. These practices, such as giving sugar water to newborns, introducing biscuits or processed foods too early, or prematurely stopping exclusive breastfeeding, can lead to malnutrition. 

Mona Hussein, a lead mother for Action Against Hunger, supports nearly a hundred families. Thanks to her efforts, families have a better understanding of the risks: “Mothers now know how to recognize the signs of malnutrition. Before, they weren’t aware of how serious it was. Now, they come to us for advice,” says Mona. 

During these sessions, mothers learn about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for six months, when and how to introduce water, what foods to give during weaning, how to spot the early signs of malnutrition, and when to seek medical advice.  

These awareness sessions are transforming the habits of many mothers, including 23-year-old Yasmeen. Before meeting Mona, she followed the practices passed down by previous generations, without realizing the risks involved. “We did what our grandmothers had taught us. We didn’t know it could make children sick,” says Yasmeen. Today, her children are healthier and cases of malnutrition have decreased significantly in her village.

While continuing screening and awareness sessions within communities is vital, the situation in Al Saad camp remains alarming, as 25-year-old Nadia Ali Suleiman explains. A community volunteer in the camp, she cares for more than 50 children on her own— including those in Ali’s family —and observes that even after successful treatment, many children relapse into malnutrition. “After recovery, families cannot afford to buy food. The children relapse. It’s a never-ending cycle,” she explains. 

In addition to this structural precariousness, humanitarian actors face major operational constraints. Disruptions and delays in the supply of ready-to-use therapeutic foods, which are essential for the treatment of acute malnutrition, combined with the irregularity of humanitarian financial aid, perpetuate high levels of acute food insecurity. The imminent depletion of essential supplies threatens to compromise the continuity of vital interventions.  

This reality highlights the fragility of the system: without sustainable coverage of essential needs, malnutrition will persist.