A two-month ceasefire has given aid groups a chance to step up aid to Yemen's starving millions, but child malnutrition is predicted to worsen if the fighting continues or humanitarian funding is not increased.
"The benefits of the first weeks of the ceasefire are already significant," Erin Hutchinson, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Yemen, told Reuters.
That group was able to provide aid to 12.000 people in a district of Hajja province that had not been reached for more than three years.
The conflict, now in its eighth year, has destroyed Yemen's economy, displaced millions and driven up food prices beyond the reach of many. Rising global grain and commodity prices are creating additional pressure.
"Tens of millions of people in Yemen are barely surviving," said Richard Ragan of the World Food Program (WFP), which is trying to feed half of Yemen's 30 million people in one of its biggest programs ever.
One-year-old Jiad Jalal lives in a makeshift camp for displaced people in Hadish in Hajja province, one of Yemen's poorest areas. He is one of 2,2 million children under the age of five - including 538.000 severely malnourished - who will suffer from acute malnutrition this year, according to UN estimates before the ceasefire.
"We only eat what we can get from humanitarian agencies. Wheat, beans and things like that. If we don't get food, some days we eat and others we are hungry," said his grandmother Zahra Ahmed.
"We are trapped between hunger and exhaustion. Look at the children," she added, pointing to little Jalal, whom they cannot afford to take to the capital, Sana'a, for treatment.
Hunger and malnutrition have worsened this year, UN data showed in March, with the organization predicting that between June and December those unable to provide minimum nutrition will reach a new high of 19 million, up from the current 17,4 million.
The number of people facing famine-like conditions could rise from 31.000 to 161.000 people, according to an analysis by the UN Food Security Programme.
In Al-Mahra, in eastern Yemen, women in a camp for displaced people in dilapidated shelters light open fires to fry crackers that children nibble on and bake bread in mud ovens.
"We adults have to be patient and suffer hunger in order to feed the children. If only you knew how sick I am, because I only feed my children," said the mother of ten children, Fatima Kajed.
She said that they receive help only once a year during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, they buy food by selling the plastic cans they collect, and they rarely see meat.
As he is unable to get milk, Seham Abdelhakim feeds his four children with sugar and water.
"I eat almost nothing during pregnancy, only tea and bread... It's the same after childbirth, we don't have chicken or anything else. I just pray to hug my child after the birth," 36-year-old Abdelhakim told Reuters.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, said this Sunday that the two-month ceasefire, which began on April 2 to coincide with Ramadan, was largely holding with a "significant reduction in violence and civilian casualties".
The ceasefire, the first nationwide cessation of hostilities since 2016, includes a halt to offensive military operations and allows fuel imports into areas controlled by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, as well as some commercial flights from Houthi-held Sanaa. The company "Yemen Airways" announced this Sunday that it will start operating return flights between Sana'a and Amman in Jordan from today.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which intervened in March 2015 to support the Yemeni government in its conflict with Houthi rebels, controls Yemen's sea and airspace.
The ceasefire has allowed WFP and commercial partners to scale up milling and distribution work, the programme's Ragan said.
“(The ceasefire) is good for Yemen, but it is also good for the humanitarian operations that are so desperately needed,” he said, adding that WFP operations were delayed by 60-75 days due to the previous escalation of the conflict.
If peace does not allow the Yemeni economy to rebuild, at least 80 percent of the country will continue to rely on humanitarian aid, according to Reuters.
In March, the United Nations received just $1,3 billion for 2022, well short of the $4,27 billion planned. Additional pledges have since come from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union, but funding remains uncertain.
WFP has cut rations for eight million of the 13 million people it feeds every month since January due to a lack of funds.
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