17 Million Hungry in Yemen, Between the Hell of Rulers and the Corruption of Organizations
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 577 - 10/12/2025
By: Ustadh Sadiq Al-Sarari – Wilayah Yemen

The United Nations confirmed that 17 million people are still suffering from severe hunger in Yemen, and that projections indicate the number will rise by an additional million. (Al Jazeera Net)

For the past five decades, the people of Yemen have not enjoyed a good standard of living, despite the country's diverse natural resources such as oil, gas, minerals, seaports, fisheries, and other riches. The struggle for survival has been the defining characteristic of the majority. This situation worsened when the senseless war erupted in March 2015 between America and Britain, waged through their local proxies. Those working outside the country found themselves unemployed, while those working within it were left without pay. The middle class merged with the lower class, and two-thirds of the population literally fell below the poverty line. This was evident early on in United Nations (UN) reports, where a joint assessment by UN agencies, the FAO, UNICEF, and WFP, revealed that 17 million people in Yemen were facing difficulties accessing food (United Nations, February 10, 2017).

The UN occasional rush to highlight the suffering of the Yemeni people is merely a ploy to siphon off as much donor funding as possible. It is indifferent to the suffering of the hungry and the cries of the sick. According to investigative reports within the framework of humanitarian response plans, for which several donor conferences were held, the funding it received from the start of the war until the end of 2023 amounted to approximately $19 billion, in addition to $9 billion outside of the announced pledges, and $21 billion in emergency funding and aid outside of the response plans. (Solutions Post, March 10, 2024).

Despite the enormous funding, equivalent to an entire country's annual budget, poverty and hunger rates remain fluctuating, according to UN reports. Its official website states that despite aid being provided, approximately 16 million Yemenis suffer from food insecurity, struggling daily to feed their families. (February 13, 2019). Each year, the figure fluctuates slightly, “UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq stated that 18 million Yemenis may face food insecurity as the World Food Programme reduces its assistance.” [Al Jazeera, June 25, 2022). The state of neither peace nor war that began in April 2022 has exacerbated the suffering of the Yemeni people, even more so than during the war itself. The meager aid from organizations gradually dried up after the ceasefire came into effect, while funding remained confined to news reports and articles.

The tragic situation that the people of Yemen have reached is relatively similar in the areas controlled by the Houthis and the areas controlled by the official government, where there are no salaries to satisfy hunger, no education to raise and build generations, no medicine, no electricity, no services, no respect to preserve people’s dignity, and no institutions to protect rights. Instead, people are being attacked over their incomes and burdened with taxes. In contrast, officials live a life of luxury that is not marred by the suffering of the poor and hungry, nor disturbed by their pains and worries.

The deteriorating living conditions of the people appear to have led to societal collapse, with crime rates rising alarmingly and unprecedentedly. “The Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and other areas under their control have witnessed a surge in various types of theft. This comes at a time when security agencies under the group's control have acknowledged recording 1,050 diverse theft crimes in Sana’a and other areas under their control during the past three months.” (Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, November 1, 2024). “Lahj Governorate has witnessed a rise in theft rates and a worsening of living conditions.” (Al-Janoub Al-Yemeni, March 11, 2025). The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms revealed that it had documented 123 murders and 46 injuries in 14 governorates under Houthi control during the first half of this year, noting that the widespread availability of weapons and the deterioration of living and psychological conditions have contributed to the exacerbation of the phenomenon. (Al-Arabiya, October 8, 2025.)

The people of Yemen are in a real war with their own people within the country. The rulers in the north and south have not only stolen the people's incomes, disrupted their interests, and deprived them of their citizenship rights, but they are also competing in a blatant and explicit manner to burden them, without any regard for the living conditions they suffer from the cutting of salaries, the decline in purchasing power, and the spread of poverty and unemployment. We will remain in the life of hardship that they impose on us, and it will not change except by changing the agent rulers and overthrowing the secular system with its laws, constitution, apparatus, and symbols, and establishing the Khilafah (Caliphate) that implement Islam in our lives. For with the Khilafah, what is permissible in Shariah will be made permissible and what is forbidden in Shariah will be made forbidden, so we will rise to a dignified life in obedience to Allah (swt), and Allah (swt) will bestow upon us blessings from the heavens and the earth. For such, let those who do good deeds, do good deeds.