The children of Yemen have been robbed of a normal childhood  

Two-year-old Iman fled Hudaydah with her parents and brother during Eid in mid-May. Luckily, they received money from relatives to pay for their transport out of the hostile city. Salwa told UNHCR, “I borrowed 20,000 riyals from someone to pay for what we needed on the road.”  

In Aden, the family settled in a site hosting displaced families. Iman’s father, Hamid, 30, works daily jobs.  

“It’s not enough to eat. I owe money to the shop. Even the candies, the kids got it on credit” Salwa explained to UNHCR.  

Salwa and her family aren’t alone. Six years of fighting in Yemen have driven millions of people from their homes. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Yemenis are at heightened risk of food insecurity as livelihoods have been lost to the combined effects of ceaseless violence and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Abdo, his wife & 13 children survived their house being shelled.

They took a bag of clothes & the little money they had saved.

They walked 12 hours to reach Aden.

They did not look back.

But they cannot look ahead either as extreme poverty now plagues their days. pic.twitter.com/eoXOuq2Num

— Jean-Nicolas Beuze (@jnbeuze) July 29, 2021

UNHCR is leading a coordinated effort across the region to protect Yemenis who have been forced to flee. This includes emergency relief and shelter for those escaping escalations in the conflict, and ongoing care such as education and healthcare. 

UNHCR is on the ground, helping families find shelter, essential supplies and healthcare. Public support is urgently needed to help us reach more people and save lives. Please donate now.  

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For more information on what’s happening in Yemen, please visit our country page. 

If you’d like to learn more about the latest updates on the crisis overall, including UNHCR situation reports, funding requirements and UNHCR’s support for countries taking in refugees from Yemen, please visit the Yemen situation portal.