Global Humanitarian Overview 2023

Middle East and North Africa

With more than 40 million migrants and 14 million internally displaced people, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has some of the world’s largest protracted conflicts, as well as frequent natural and human-made crises, pandemic outbreaks and climatic shocks. The region continues to witness increasing instability and fragility driven by conflict, growing economic hardships, hyperinflation and unemployment, compounded by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic impact of the Ukraine crisis. On top of the ongoing conflicts, further social and political unrest is looming due to continuous increases in the cost of living, economic decline, shrinking political and democratic space, and the spread of extremism. In addition, the MENA region is among the world’s most climate change-vulnerable regions. It is warming faster than the global average, with two countries (Egypt and Yemen) exposed to high or very high risks of heatwaves.

Humanitarian Response Plans

Marib, Yemen , Ahmed Yahya carries a hygiene kit provided by UNICEF for displaced people.

Yemen

Yemen
30 November 2022
Occupied Palestinian Territory

Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Men stand in the destruction that followed an Israeli strike.

OCHA/Mohammad Lubbad

A deadly cholera outbreak is spreading throughout the region at alarming rates, fuelled by weak water and sanitation systems, poor water management, increased poverty, impacts of climate change and protracted conflicts. Cholera cases have skyrocketed in Yemen and Iraq and spread from Syria to Lebanon, placing Jordan and other neighbouring countries at high risk. The global cholera vaccine stockpile is under huge pressure, with outbreaks in 29 countries worldwide. Urgent funding is required to contain the outbreak and prepare for cross-border transmission.

Coordination will play a key role in recognizing the disproportionate impact of conflict and crisis on vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities. It will support and facilitate the integration of disability, among other protection considerations, into response planning and action. Good examples of this from Yemen include the Inclusion Taskforce, and the Disability and Physical Rehabilitation Working Group. Another good example is the disability inclusion checklist adapted and used by the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon

This artwork on a wall reads "Salaamtak ya Beirut", or "I hope you will feel better, Beirut." The country has been run by a caretaker government since May 2022. This is fueling fears of further delay in efforts to complete a deal with the International Monetary Fund, broadly considered as a crucial step to help the country out of the current crisis.

OCHA/Craig Anderson

Across the MENA region, 33.4 million of 41.3 million people in need of humanitarian assistance are targeted for support in 2023. Despite mounting challenges, the number of people in need has decreased by 3.27 million compared to the average of the last three years, accounting for more than 7 per cent, while the number of targeted people remains relatively stable. The funding requirement for 2023 is US$9.8 billion for country plans, and has remained relatively stable over the past three years. Requirements inclusive of regional response plans amount to $15.2 billion.

Despite donors’ extraordinary efforts in 2022, humanitarian funding allocated to humanitarian operations in the region has not kept pace with the exponential increase in humanitarian needs. The humanitarian system is strained, and investment in resilience, sustainable livelihoods and Humanitarian Development and Peace Nexus programming is essential to effectively respond to escalating needs due to climate change, economic decline and political unrest. By mid-November 2022, the average funding of Humanitarian Response Plans in the six response countries in the region reached 51.9 per cent, with Syria being the least funded at only 42.6 per cent (out of $4.4. billion) and Libya being the most funded at 79.8 per cent (out of $114 million). However, the humanitarian funding gap is still wide, especially for the education, protection and shelter clusters.

Lebanon

  • Current People in Need
    3.9 million
  • Current People Targeted
    1.3 million
  • Current Requirements (US$)
    $200.2 million
Go to plan details
People in Need at launch (Dec. 2022)
2.3 million
People Targeted at launch (Dec. 2022)
1.3 million
Requirements (US$) at launch (Dec. 2022)
600 million
Total Population
5.8 million
Income level
Lower middle income
INFORM Severity Index
4.5 / Medium

Analysis of the context, crisis and needs

In a backdrop of weakened governance and political paralysis, Lebanon is facing an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, ranking among the top 10 most severe crises worldwide, affecting all residents and population groups (Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees and migrants). In this context, the situation of ordinary people in Lebanon is worsening day by day. In July 2022, the World Bank downgraded Lebanon to a lower-middle-income country, with a decrease of GDP to US$20.5 billion for the first time in 27 years. Since early 2022, the local currency has continued to depreciate in value against the US dollar.

At the Government level, Lebanon has entered a never experienced political vacuum with the departure of the President as of first of November 2022 in addition to the continued running of the country by a caretaker government since May 2022. This is fuelling fears of further delay in efforts to complete a deal with the International Monetary Fund, broadly considered as a crucial step to help the country out of the current crisis.

Amid the unprecedented economic meltdown and weak governance, Lebanon is witnessing an upsurge in tensions and security incidents, often driven by competition for basic services and commodities. Reports show that crime rates remain high, and incidents of hate speech and stigmatization of communities have multiplied. State institutions and services, notably electricity service lines, were already suffering from years of underinvestment prior to the compounded crisis and are now on the brink of collapse.

Inflation along with the steady removal of central bank subsidies has led to major increases in prices of basic commodities. An increase in the price of crude oil on the global market further compounded the spiking fuel prices in Lebanon, exacerbating the overall electricity crisis. Long queues in front of bakeries are now being witnessed due to wheat shortages and the increase in the price of wheat flour by nearly 210 per cent since the conflict began in Ukraine, and by 330 per cent since 2019 and the start of the economic crisis.

Lebanon relies on imports for most of its food and non-food items. The prices of these items are increasing due to currency depreciation, inflation and the Ukraine crisis, with more than half of the Lebanese population now dependent on humanitarian assistance for food and basic needs. The World Food Programme says that the price of a minimum food basket has increased by more than 1,700 per cent since October 2019, and the average salary in Lebanon now covers only 24 per cent of basic food needs, compared to 93 per cent in 2021.

Lebanon

Lebanon

Food prices have risen dramatically in Lebanon. The price of wheat flour has increased by nearly 210 per cent since the conflict began in Ukraine, and by 330 per cent since 2019, when the economic crisis began.

OCHA

The overlapping crises have also severely impacted access to health, safe clean drinking water, and sanitation services. Health care is now inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of people in country due to the unavailability and unaffordability of medicine, insufficient functional hospital beds per population or skyrocketing patient costs for hospitalization. Following a cholera outbreak spreading since June throughout Asia and the Middle East, Lebanon reporting its first case of cholera on 6 October 2022. As of 22 October, the Ministry of Public Health has reported 448 confirmed cases and 10 deaths. More than half of the cases (53 per cent) are children under age 15 and 57 per cent are women. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 53,000 people could contract the disease by early next year.

Sectoral assessments and the multisectoral needs assessment conducted between July and October 2022 found that humanitarian assistance was necessary for many of the most vulnerable families who, in the absence of adequate social safety nets, were not otherwise receiving any support. Around 80 per cent of Lebanese households, 57 per cent of Palestine refugees (PRL) households and 91 per cent of migrant households reported that they did not receive any assistance during the three months preceding the assessment.

Other pockets of acute needs have been found across all other sectors, with over 1.2 million people needing support to access safe water and sanitation. The number of Lebanese working children has remarkably increased. The child labour profiling exercise conducted by Tripoli municipality and UNICEF on a sample of 1,020 children showed that 72 per cent of them are Lebanese. Partners have also reported a 99 per cent increase in the cost of protection services, while gender-based violence risks are expected to increase in a context where obstacles in seeking help are increasing. The situation is further compounding protection risks for already marginalized groups in society, including elderly people, people with disabilities and the LGBTIQ+ community. Furthermore, many people, primarily children and women, suffer from some form of nutritional deprivation, with more than 70 per cent of young children missing foods rich in vitamin A and sources of protein in their diets.

Lebanon

Borj Hammoud, Lebanon

Vartouhi Ourfalian lives in Dora. She is widowed and has stomach cancer but makes a small income working as a tailor.

OCHA

Projected situation in 2023 and beyond

Humanitarian needs are expected to increase in 2023. It will remain a complex political year as presidential elections expected by the end of 2022 are being delayed, as well as the municipal elections scheduled by May 2023. To date, the country remains under the responsibility of a caretaker Government, and the presidential vacuum will further compound political uncertainty.

Operational access constraints are expected to continue increasing due to the breakdown of law and order, political impasse and instability, heavy bureaucratic impediments, donors’ stringent counter-terrorist measures in key areas in Lebanon, and further fragmentation and politicization of aid.

The further collapse of basic services, price spikes, inflation and supply shortages are expected, further compounded by the impact of the war in Ukraine. The prospect for economic reforms and unlocking of major development assistance remains limited, as no progress has been made on the eight pre-conditions necessary to ensure that the four-year International Monetary Fund Staff Level agreement be implemented in 2023.

In view of such continued political impasse and lack of structural reforms, and in line with documented growing needs and anticipated forecasts, including by development actors, the humanitarian situation in Lebanon is not expected to improve throughout 2023-2025.

Response priorities in 2023

The Emergency Response Plan (ERP) was first developed in 2021 to provide exceptional time-bound assistance to save lives and alleviate suffering of the target population in the absence of a full-fledged comprehensive and inclusive Government-led social protection strategy. Since then, the necessary reforms have not taken place, and the economy has continued to collapse while humanitarian needs have continued to significantly increase.

In 2023 the ERP will aim to provide lifesaving and life-sustaining humanitarian support to approximately 1.3 million Lebanese, Migrant and Palestine Refugees in Lebanon. Joint-up needs assessments, needs analysis and planning will ensure that Humanitarian assistance provided by the ERP will be aligned with the integrated humanitarian and stabilization response supporting Syrian refugees, Palestinian Refugees from Syria as well as vulnerable Lebanese and Palestine Refugees in Lebanon among the host community, including through support to Government institutions, under the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP).

In addition to providing life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian support, the humanitarian community in Lebanon will continue to work closely with development and stabilization entities to operationalize the nexus, including through the area-based coordination groups, and to contribute to the adoption of a shared understanding of and coordinated action in response to the priority drivers of need.

The Humanitarian Country Team has initiated efforts to enhance a collective accountability to affected people (AAP) approach in implementing the ERP, building on available mechanisms and tools and ensuring synergies with current platforms. Collective AAP mechanisms will support both a people-centred and a community-centred approach to a) ensure equitable and meaningful access to available information and services, b) leverage the participation of affected people, including marginalized groups and hard-to-reach communities, and c) promote two-way communication between humanitarian partners and the affected communities.

The ERP aims to ensure that the specific and diverse needs, capacities and priorities of women, girls, men, boys and gender non-conforming individuals are identified and responded to. Integrating gender equality in the ERP also reinforces a human rights-based approach, which improves programming. Humanitarian coordination, technical assistance, information management and advocacy efforts related to gender equality will be supported by Lebanon’s Gender Working Group and the LGBTIQ+ Task Force (sub-working group), which oversees gender mainstreaming across the humanitarian-development and peace interventions.

In addition to sector-specific cash support, multipurpose cash assistance provides flexibility and is critical in assisting households affected by multiple vulnerabilities requiring a holistic response. Assistance will be distributed based on clear targeting and eligibility criteria by NGOs and UN agencies working collaboratively across sectors, drawing on lessons learned from previous years.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

  • Current People in Need
    2.1 million
  • Current People Targeted
    1.6 million
  • Current Requirements (US$)
    $376.7 million
People in Need at launch (Dec. 2022)
2.1 million
People Targeted at launch (Dec. 2022)
1.6 million
Requirements (US$) at launch (Dec. 2022)
510 million
Total Population
5.3 million
INFORM Severity Index
4.6 / Medium
Consecutive appeal
2003 - 2023

Analysis of the context, crisis and needs

The Occupied Palestinian territory remains a protracted political crisis characterized by more than 55 years of Israeli military occupation, 15 years of the Gaza blockade, internal Palestinian divisions, lack of adherence to international humanitarian and human rights law, and recurrent escalations of hostilities between Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups. The results are chronic protection concerns and humanitarian needs, which will continue in the absence of a sustainable political solution.

Across the OPT, humanitarian assistance addresses Palestinians’ immediate needs while also providing a critical stabilizing force. 2022 saw a deepening of these needs due to intensifying conflict and political divisions, increasing poverty, and increasingly repressive and restrictive policies at a time of declining aid inflows. November 2022 was on course to be the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the UN started systematically tracking fatalities in 2005, with more than 100 Palestinians killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Israeli authorities have maintained and intensified practices in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, such as search-and-arrest operations, demolitions, evictions and settlement expansion. At the same time, settler violence has continued to rise, which includes the targeting of productive assets and equipment. This results in unstable livelihoods, which undermines economic potential.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory

A boy plays in the rubble of his partially destroyed home. He is one of some 60 children and 20 adults from the same family living in the house, which was hit during an air strike last year.

UNICEF/Iyad El Baba

In Gaza, the most recent escalation in August lasted two days yet resulted in 49 deaths, 360 injuries and damage to approximately 2,000 housing units before a ceasefire was reached. The violence, in combination with related closures and increased restrictions on the movement of people and critical goods, further eroded the coping capacities of Palestinians in Gaza while driving new needs, especially in mental health and psychosocial support services, shelter, livelihoods, cash assistance and essential goods, including medicines and medical supplies, food, construction materials and fuel. This compounded existing vulnerabilities in Gaza, including widespread food insecurity, lack of reliable electricity, insufficient access to clean water, high unemployment and rapid population growth. In total, upwards of 21,300 families live in unhygienic and overcrowded shelter conditions.

Projected situation in 2023 and beyond

In 2023, the situation is expected to deteriorate, and the severity of needs is expected to increase unless there is conflict de-escalation, policy changes, positive movement on mending internal Palestinian political divisions, and development and economic improvements.

The key drivers of the humanitarian crisis, combined with aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis and reduced funding, have deepened Palestinians’ vulnerability and, in turn, increased the demand for humanitarian assistance across the OPT, a trend likely to continue in 2023. In the absence of a political process, improvements are not expected.

Occupied Palestinian territory

Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Destruction in Gaza following an Israeli strike.

OCHA/Mohammad Lubbad

Response priorities in 2023

In 2023, an estimated 2.1 million Palestinians across the OPT will require some form of humanitarian assistance. The majority, 61 per cent, live in Gaza.

Findings from the recently completed Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) indicate a deterioration in the situation for many households, particularly in Gaza, where more than half of households are identified as being in severe to catastrophic conditions. The humanitarian assistance provided to vulnerable communities, notably in Gaza and Area C of the West Bank, enables access to adequate levels of food security, health care, education and other immediate needs while serving as a critical stabilizing force. One such example is the protective measures now in place for 4,705 of the 5,024 (93.6 per cent) pending cases of housing and structure demolitions, which prevent the execution of demolition orders while litigation is ongoing. People in the OPT will continue to depend on this and other forms of humanitarian aid to meet their increasing needs.

Humanitarian partners in the OPT are encountering a progressively challenging operating environment, hindering their ability to rapidly deliver assistance. The imposition of physical and administrative measures continues to restrict humanitarian programmes, including constraints on access and the delivery of required materials. Increasing violence across the OPT has come in parallel with increases in harassment and attacks on personnel, most notably health-care workers.

Occupied Palestinian Territory

Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory

Internally displaced people in Gaza following Israeli air strikes.

OCHA/Mohammad Lubbad

Humanitarian partners aim to assist 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people in 2023. Ensuring access to basic services and building the resilience of increasingly vulnerable people are key components of the 2023 humanitarian strategy, aimed at mitigating the impact of this prolonged crisis on civilians across the OPT. The current reliance on negative and unsustainable coping mechanisms heightens vulnerability and endangers recovery from recurring shocks. An emphasis will also be placed on ensuring the ‘right to health’ and addressing the mental health and psychosocial challenges arising from the chronic violence.

The Humanitarian Response Plan and the UN Strategic Cooperation Development Framework are being developed concurrently. They were both informed by the MSNA, providing a basis for identifying programmatic linkages between humanitarian and development actors and the Palestinian Authority with the aim of reducing structural vulnerabilities.

Syrian Arab Republic

  • Current People in Need
    15.3 million
  • Current People Targeted
    14.2 million
  • Current Requirements (US$)
    $5.41 billion
People in Need at launch (Dec. 2022)
15.3 million
People Targeted at launch (Dec. 2022)
12.7 million
Requirements (US$) at launch (Dec. 2022)
4.4 billion
Total Population
22.1 million
Income level
Low income
INFORM Severity Index
6.9 / Very High
Consecutive appeals
2012 - 2023

Analysis of the context, crisis and needs

After 11 years of crisis, most Syrian continue to face a context of continuing humanitarian decline. The country still has the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world (6.8 million people), the largest number of people in need since the crisis began, humanitarian indicators that continue to deteriorate, basic services that are collapsing, an ongoing cholera outbreak, economic indicators that are worsening, and climatic and human-caused shocks that compound an already dire situation. This multitude of challenges makes Syria one of the world’s most complex humanitarian and protection emergencies. As a result, at least 15.3 million people will require humanitarian assistance in 2023, with needs that keep increasing across all sectors. These people include over 1.8 million IDPs living in 1,421 last-resort IDP sites in north-west Syria, and 278,400 IDPs who reside in over 260 sites in north-east Syria.

The crippled economy, which is characterized by high inflation, currency depreciation and increases in the prices of commodities, remains one of the biggest drivers of need. It drives more people towards poverty, makes them more reliant on humanitarian assistance, increases resort to harmful coping mechanisms and increases the cost of response. The economic decline creates a compounding impact on food security and access to services. According to the Multi-Sector Needs Assessment, by August 2022, the average household expenditure exceeded the average household income by 60 per cent, compared to 49 per cent in 2021, despite 94 per cent of households having an employed head of household. All the population groups identified in the Humanitarian Needs Overview are worse off in 2022 than they were in 2021.

Syria

Aleppo, Syria

Abeer is a mother of five from Deir Hafer, in rural Aleppo. Her husband was killed, and she decided to return to her town soon after the security situation began to improve. But she found her home destroyed. Abeer applied for a small business grant through UNHCR and now runs a small mini mart.

UNHCR/Bassam Diab

In 2022, Syria faced a severe and long-term drought, resulting in poor growing conditions that reflect the persistence of drier-than-normal rainy seasons. Unusually dry conditions during the wet season and abnormally high temperatures have exacerbated water deficits. This, combined with low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure, has not only reduced access to water for drinking and domestic use for millions of Syrians, but also triggered substantial harvest and income losses, an increase in waterborne diseases and malnutrition rates, and additional protection risks, especially for women and girls. In September 2022, a cholera outbreak was declared, affecting all 14 of Syria’s governorates.

Households indicate that food, electricity assistance and livelihood support are among their top three unmet needs.

Building resilience and re-establishing lives 

Syrian Arab Republic
Syria

A UN Joint Programme on urban and rural resilience in Syria is putting resilience-building and emergency assistance into practice.   

The programme, which includes six UN agencies, has been piloted in two of the most heavily devastated parts of Syria: Dara’a in the south and Deir-ez-Zor in the east. Deir-ez-Zor has suffered from high levels of food insecurity and drought and a loss of agricultural production due to decreased rainfall.     

FAO and WFP are running a joint project to rehabilitate the irrigation system and enhance food security on the rural side of Deir-ez-Zor, an area known as Sector 5. The ripple effects of this type of early recovery intervention have become clear. With reliable water management systems, farmers were able to restore their agricultural outputs, produce their own food and increase household income from local markets. Eighteen months ago, all four villages within Sector 5 were entirely reliant on food assistance and emergency handouts, this has now reduced to 15 per cent of the population in this area.    

In urban settings, early recovery and resilience are also delivering visible results. On Cinema Fouad Street in central Deir-ez-Zor, named after the old cinema that once stood there, every corner was destroyed and there were no traces of human activity. But the street is now transformed thanks to the Joint Programme’s investments in health care, schools, solar lighting and small businesses. Restaurants are buzzing, lights are on, life has returned to the city.  

This type of intervention signals something much greater than a simple restoration of infrastructure; it boosted confidence in the area, and it showed how people are using their own resources to return, rebuild and re-establish their lives.

Projected situation in 2023 and beyond

In 2022, the key drivers of humanitarian need in Syria were related to conflict, economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the water crisis and drought-like conditions. In 2023, localized hostilities, the economic crisis, the water crisis and public health emergencies, including cholera and climate-related situations, are expected to remain the main drivers of humanitarian need, with downward trends across all drivers. In addition, international and regional geopolitical dynamics could have serious implications on needs across the country, especially in case of a non-renewal of the UN Security Council resolution authorizing the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance to parts of the country. Large-scale return of refugees is unlikely despite political pressure from some corners.

For IDPs inside camps, the main factors determining vulnerability and severity of needs are their displacement status, limited livelihood opportunities in camps, and the poor shelter and overcrowding conditions they live under.

For IDPs outside camps, the main factors determining vulnerability and severity of needs are increased shelter assistance needs and lack of access to non-food items (NFIs), combined with limited access to basic services and infrastructures.

Syria

Karm Al-Zayton Camp, Syria

Maryam is displaced and living at the Karm Al-Zayton camp, in the southern countryside of Aleppo. She sews to provide bread for her children, and she teaches other women so that they can provide for their families.

OCHA/Fadi Al-Shami

For returnees, the main factors of vulnerability and severity of needs are the lack of access to NFIs and electricity, combined with the increased need for shelter repairs, in addition to needs arising from return-related security concerns.

For residents, the main factors determining vulnerability and severity of needs are multiple and widespread. Residents' needs are increasingly linked to the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation combined with the continued lack of access to basic services and infrastructure due to years of conflict.

In all of the above-mentioned four population groups, women-headed households were found to have higher economic vulnerability than households headed by men. Women-headed households have higher food needs and are, on average, more likely to report security concerns, highlighting the gendered nature of the risks faced by households in Syria.

Syrian Arab Republic

Aleppo, Syria

Children in Aleppo prepare to meet the Humanitarian Coordinator and a delegation from the European Union during a visit in August 2022.

UNHCR

Response priorities in 2023

In 2022, the humanitarian community moved to a two-year plan covering 2022 and 2023. In 2023, the response will continue to address the key drivers of needs, including protection threats, continued rights violations, accelerating economic deterioration, limited or unavailable basic services, and environmental shocks. In a context of rising needs, humanitarian partners will prioritize addressing people’s most urgent needs, including by expanding critically required livelihood support as well as access to basic services, through investments in critical civilian infrastructure required for service delivery, among other approaches. In so doing, humanitarian partners hope to prevent a deteriorating situation for millions of people currently living with moderate humanitarian needs, reduce structural vulnerabilities of communities and strengthen their resilience.

Yemen

  • Current People in Need
    21.6 million
  • Current People Targeted
    17.4 million
  • Current Requirements (US$)
    $4.34 billion
Go to plan details
People in Need at launch (Dec. 2022)
21.6 million
People Targeted at launch (Dec. 2022)
19 million
Requirements (US$) at launch (Dec. 2022)
4.3 billion
Total Population
31.2 million
Income level
Low income
INFORM Severity Index
8.1 / Very High
Consecutive appeals
2008 - 2023

Analysis of the context, crisis, and needs

Eight years into the conflict’s escalation, the crisis in Yemen remains severe, with more than 21 million people needing humanitarian assistance. The conflict’s protracted nature has resulted in economic collapse, increased poverty and the breakdown of national social protection systems, worsening the already alarming food insecurity situation. Basic service delivery across the country continues to be vastly inadequate and hampered by damaged infrastructure, lack of critical supplies and personnel, and limited public system capacities. Deepening poverty and financial unaffordability further hinder access to essential services and goods for the most vulnerable populations. In 2022, Yemen also experienced two weather extremes, swinging from severe drought to intense flooding as the country bears the brunt of the climate crisis. Between January and June 2022, Yemen experienced moderate-to-severe drought conditions, and by mid-July, torrential rains and flooding had hit several areas across the country. By the end of September, this had affected 74,000 households (more than 500,000 people) in 19 governorates.

The UN-brokered truce, which commenced on 2 April 2022, provided the people of Yemen with the first sustained reprieve from fighting since the conflict surged in 2015. The truce enhanced humanitarian access in some areas and resulted in reductions in internal displacement and civilian casualties. By November, the truce had not been extended following its expiry on 2 October, although its provisions largely continued to hold, and no major military escalation had taken place.

Despite the improvements during the truce, low-level hostilities in 61 districts with active front lines and the presence of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) continued to impact civilians. According to the Civilian Impact Monitoring Project – an open, unverified source – civilian casualties due to landmines and ERW reportedly increased by 38 per cent compared to the pre-truce period, having killed or injured 343 civilians between 2 April and 30 September, compared to 248 civilians in the six months before the truce. A total of 186 access incidents related to landmines and ERW were reported during the same period. The presence of and exposure to explosive hazards in civilian areas as well as damage or destruction of civilian infrastructure and houses pose further obstacles, impacting prospects for return and sustainable recovery.

Yemen

Marib, Yemen

An internally displaced family walk through Al Sumya IDP camp.

OCHA/Jihad Al-Nahari

Yemen continues to be one of the world’s most challenging operating environments. Throughout 2022, the humanitarian operation continued to be impacted by bureaucratic impediments, movement restrictions, insecurity and aid interference incidents, which hindered and delayed aid delivery to millions of people. Meanwhile, funding gaps for the humanitarian operation have forced humanitarian partners to cut back or even close life-saving programmes, including for severely underfunded sectors such as shelter/non-food items (NFIs), health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education and protection.

Millions of people are still in a situation where they are unable to meet their basic needs, with detrimental impacts especially on vulnerable groups. This increases the risks of people adopting harmful coping strategies, such as accumulating debt, selling assets, forced or early marriage, school dropout and child labour, with grave long-term impacts, especially on women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities and marginalized communities.

The conflict has displaced 4.5 million people, including 234,283 displaced people in 2022. Some of the highest levels of vulnerability are concentrated among the estimated 1.65 million internally displaced people (IDPs) living in some 2,431 displacement sites in sub-standard living conditions. Durable shelter solutions for those in displacement sites and in areas of return are minimal due to the focus on the emergency response, the scale of housing destruction, and other house, land and property issues. An estimated 300,000 migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees also face extreme risks and are highly reliant on humanitarian aid.

Yemen

Al Sumya Camp in Marib, Yemen

Ahmed Mohamed Ali, 68, is internally displaced from Ibb with his nine family members.

OCHA/Jihad Al-Nahari

Projected situation in 2023 and beyond

In 2023, the severity of needs is expected to remain at similar levels as in 2022. In the case of a major escalation in conflict following the non-extension of the truce, new or recurrent displacements and needs across the country are likely to increase in 2023. In the absence of investments addressing root causes of poverty and improving access to sustainable livelihoods, further economic deterioration and decreasing purchasing power are likely to aggravate food insecurity and malnutrition rates, dire living conditions and protection concerns. IDPs will continue to live in sub-standard living conditions with limited humanitarian access and limited access to adequate housing, despite continued efforts to mitigate risks. While projections were less grim at the end of 2022 than initially expected, acute food insecurity will remain at high levels, especially in the event of major shortfalls for the humanitarian operation.

Flash flooding is expected to impact tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people — including IDPs, who could lose their shelters — as well as devastate infrastructure, services, agriculture and livestock. Essential service delivery is expected to remain inadequate and hampered by the lack of infrastructure, risk reduction measures and long-term investments. The inability to address underlying drivers of food insecurity will continue to maintain people’s dependency on humanitarian assistance.

Delivering life-saving oxygen to Aden’s neediest patients   

Aden, Yemen

In Yemen, oxygen is a critically important resource in clinics and hospitals. It facilitates surgeries and maternal and child-related care, and it treats medical conditions such as asthma, pneumonia and COVID-19. However, the pandemic has strained Yemen’s supply of medical oxygen, and the ongoing conflict has left hospitals and clinics without ready access to fresh supplies of this crucial resource.  

In partnership with the Islamic Development Bank, the World Health Organization launched an initiative to build oxygen stations at 14 hospitals and health clinics throughout Yemen, as part of the country’s National COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan. The project is progressing, and in April 2022, Al-Sadaqah Hospital in Aden was the first to get its new oxygen production unit up and running. 

Wala’a Walid’s son suffered from severe jaundice, and Al-Sadaqah Hospital was his only hope. She explained: “The first thing the doctors did was to put him on the ventilator to get enough oxygen. His condition has been better in the week since he entered Al-Sadaqah.”  

The project, overseen by a biomedical engineer, includes staff training along with ancillary equipment such as ventilators and arterial blood gas analysers, which deliver oxygen in a medically useful way.   

Abdurrahman Mohammed Musa works in the hospital’s paediatric intensive care unit. He knows exactly what difference the new oxygen station has made: “Most patients who come here suffer from shock, lack of blood circulation or difficulty breathing, so they need oxygen in ventilators. Oxygen is indeed available in private hospitals, but you pay money to get it. There is a demand here because oxygen is available and free.”    

When oxygen was available it was delivered to the hospital’s patients directly from large canisters that were lugged to each patient’s bedside. But the new oxygen station has vastly improved this laborious routine.   

Response priorities in 2023

As of September 2022, 150 partners across Yemen have assisted at least 15 million people. Each month, an average of 10.6 million people, including IDPs, returnees and vulnerable host-community members, were reached with humanitarian assistance in Yemen.

In 2023, the humanitarian community will continue these life-saving activities and work to strengthen the aid operation in accordance with the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Humanitarian Evaluation that was completed in mid-2022. Preventing food scarcity and finding systemic solutions to food insecurity by improving access to sustainable livelihoods will remain a major response priority, as will reducing mortality and morbidity, preventing malnutrition, and providing WASH, shelter/NFI, education and health services. Additional priorities will include scaling up the provision of localized humanitarian interventions, promoting integrated responses to ensure access to and availability of essential services, strengthening mine action activities and increasing pre-positioning of contingency supplies. In light of the protracted nature of the crisis and climatic shocks, further investment and coordination models are needed to strengthen development assistance, address the underlying causes of hunger and poverty, and support progress towards durable solutions to displacement while protecting needs-based and principled humanitarian action.

References

  1. Part of Lebanon Multi-year Emergency Response Plan (ERP) 2021-22
  2. This significant increase in landmines and UXOs-related casualties (during the truce) is likely a result of increased mobility of civilians as the truce provided access to wider-range areas in Yemen as well as flooding which shifted the positions of landmines.
  3. The most recent Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) analysis of acute food insecurity projects that 17 million people in Yemen will face high food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 and above) in October to December in 2022, a reduction of 2 million people compared to estimates from earlier in the year.