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Could Yemen’s humanitarian crisis — the most dire in the world — be about to get dramatically worse?
Tens of thousands of Yemenis have been scrambling from their villages as fighting closes in on a strategic city on the Red Sea, inflaming a humanitarian crisis already considered the most severe in the world.
What began as a trickle fleeing Yemen’s civil war in December has grown to more than 140,000, with hundreds more abandoning their homes each day. Refugee settlements have sprung up across southern Yemen, multiplying the pressure on Western aid agencies and hospitals struggling to cope with injuries, disease and hunger.
The crisis grew even more urgent on Wednesday when a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s exiled government launched an offensive to capture Hodeida, a vital port controlled by northern rebels.
The United Nations has warned that an assault on the city of 600,000 people could be catastrophic, and the human toll could extend well beyond the city’s limits. More than three-quarters of Yemen’s food is imported through Hodeida’s port, which is also essential for the entry of fuel, medicine and other essential supplies.
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