Mohamed Saed’s children still call him to the table.
asserted
children → call → table
“Come on, Dad, come eat,” they say.
asserted
they → come → ?
Often, he tells them he is already full, even when he has gone without food.
asserted
he → tell → food
The 46-year-old teacher has not received a salary in years.
asserted
teacher → receive → years
Displaced three or four times since Yemen’s war began, he lives with his wife and five children in a single room in Taiz and is more than a year behind on rent.
asserted
he → displace → rent
list of 3 items- list 1 of 3Iran downplays possible role in Houthis’ recent Yemen victories
- list 2 of 3Are Houthis using new modified cruise missiles in Yemen’s war?
- list 3 of 3Yemen’s war disrupts roads and ports, deepening humanitarian crisis
“We no longer eat three meals,” he told Al Jazeera.
asserted
he → downplay → Jazeera
His family was going hungry long before the latest fighting.
asserted
family → go → fighting
Now, a new escalation that began in early September has forced nearly 134,000 people from their homes, including an estimated 73,000 children, according to UNICEF, leaving many more families deciding which meals to skip.
uncertain
that → begin → meals
Yemen’s latest round of fighting has redrawn front lines after more than a decade of war, fuelling hunger and displacement.
asserted
round → redrawn → hunger
The country has been effectively divided since the Iran-aligned Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014.
asserted
Houthis → divide → 2014
The Houthis control the north and west, where most Yemenis live, while the internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, holds most of the south and east.
asserted
which → control → south
On September 3, fighting erupted between the Houthis and government forces when the Houthis launched a major offensive west of Taiz.
asserted
Houthis → erupt → Taiz
Within days, Houthi fighters entered Mocha, and they have since taken control of almost all of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, down to the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a chokepoint for global shipping.
asserted
they → enter → shipping
Saudi Arabia has responded with hundreds of air strikes, and the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on Saudi territory.
asserted
Houthis → respond → territory
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 838 people have been killed and more than 3,600 injured since early August, when the Houthis began striking government forces.
asserted
Houthis → say → forces
Most of the toll has come since the ground offensive began on September 3, and in the week to September 26 alone, 164 people were killed.
asserted
people → come → September
UNICEF has verified that at least 15 children have been killed and 14 injured since September 3, and three more are reported missing.
asserted
three → verify → September
‘We left everything’
asserted
We → leave → everything
She fled Zaghar, in the Maqbanah area west of Taiz where the Houthi offensive began, facing what she describes as rockets, shells and the terror of landmines all at once.
asserted
she → flee → landmines
“We left our homes, and we left our livestock, the donkey and the chickens”, she told Al Jazeera from al-Shaqadif camp near Taiz city.
asserted
she → leave → city
“We left everything up to God.”
asserted
We → leave → God
In the camp, she says, no aid organisation has brought her family food.
asserted
organisation → say → food
They survive on what charitable people give them.
asserted
people → survive → them
She borrowed money to buy a tarpaulin for shelter, and rainwater has already soaked through it twice, drenching their clothes.
asserted
rainwater → borrow → clothes
“The children have diarrhoea, colds and dysentery.
asserted
children → have → diarrhoea
We don’t have water for them, not even clean water,” she says.
asserted
she → have → them
Dysentery, an intestinal infection spread by contaminated water and poor sanitation, can be deadly for young children because of dehydration.
asserted
Dysentery → spread → dehydration
“There are no blankets to keep warm,” Saeed says.
asserted
Saeed → be → ?
“We only give them treatment at home with water, salt and sugar.”
asserted
We → give → water
Women wait until night and walk to the mountainside or somewhere isolated, she says.
asserted
she → wait → mountainside
Half a nation going hungry
asserted
nation → go → ?
In a country of about 43 million people, more than 18.3 million face acute food insecurity in 2026, according to the UN.
uncertain
million → face → UN
Children are among the hardest hit.
asserted
Children → hit → hit
Even before the latest fighting, more than 2.2 million children under five were projected to be acutely malnourished this year, more than half a million of them with severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form, UNICEF’s Louise Wateridge told Al Jazeera.
asserted
Wateridge → project → Jazeera
She warned that the fighting is accelerating a vicious cycle: conflict drives hunger and hunger leaves children more vulnerable to conflict.
asserted
hunger → warn → conflict
In government-controlled areas, nearly five million people, about half, faced crisis levels of hunger or worse between March and May, including 1.4 million in emergency conditions, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard for measuring hunger.
uncertain
people → control → hunger
The IPC projected that the situation would worsen during the June to September lean season, with 5.3 million people facing crisis conditions or worse, including 1.6 million in emergency conditions.
asserted
people → project → conditions
Even after the harvest, it expects 5.4 million to remain at crisis levels or worse from October to December.
asserted
million → expect → December
A month without a home
Enas Abdullah Abdo, 23, fled Hadhran with her three children on the second day of fighting.
asserted
Abdo → flee → fighting
“Every hour, the shelling and clashes on us increased, [and] then when the shells eventually reached the houses, we were forced to leave”, she says.
asserted
she → increase → houses
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
