UN warns Yemen faces gravest risk of full-scale war since 2022 truce
UN officials warn Yemen faces its gravest risk of large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce, citing renewed Houthi attacks and a dire humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations has issued a stark warning that Yemen is at its highest risk of sliding back into large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce, as fighting intensifies along multiple front lines.
Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, told the Security Council on Thursday that military activity has escalated sharply, with recent attacks by Ansar Allah in Marib, Hadhramaut, and other areas causing casualties among both soldiers and civilians.
Grundberg also pointed to renewed attacks by Ansar Allah on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. He warned these actions risk drawing Yemen deeper into the wider regional confrontation, especially with trade and energy flows already under severe strain from the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.
"A return to large scale fighting in Yemen now would come at an unforgiving moment," Grundberg said, noting that state institutions are fragmented after over a decade of conflict and the economy has little room to absorb another shock.
He cautioned that renewed war would send a new generation to the front lines instead of giving them a chance to rebuild the country. "Four years of calm can be lost in a few weeks of escalation," he added, urging all members with influence over the parties to push them back to negotiations.
The humanitarian picture is equally bleak. Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, reported that over half of Yemen's population is experiencing acute food insecurity. Six million people face emergency levels of deprivation bordering on famine, the highest number globally.
Fletcher said aid operations have been crippled by funding shortages, with the humanitarian appeal barely 20 percent funded. "When funding drops, rations are cut. Clinics, clothes and protection services disappear," he warned.
In 2025, UN aid reached an average of 5.3 million people per month in Yemen, but that lifeline is now at risk. The political and security situation has remained deadlocked since the 2022 UN-mediated truce, and officials fear the current escalation could undo years of relative calm in a matter of weeks.