Yemen – Complex Emergency

The fragile February 2010 ceasefire collapsed in April 2011, resulting in sporadic clashes and isolated violent incidents that have hindered large-scale population returns to Sa'dah and Al Jawf governorates, as well as northern areas of 'Amran Governorate. The USG-designated terrorist group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula increased its attacks against the RoYG in the southern governorate of Abyan, displacing people, disrupting basic services, and hindering humanitarian access. A large-scale food insecurity and malnutrition crisis has been building in Yemen since 2009, with as many as half of Yemen's 24 million people being food insecure. Of those individuals, 22 percent, or 5.3 million individuals, are severely food insecure, with 1 million children nationwide suffering from acute malnutrition. Humanitarian organizations, including Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), have been working to address the humanitarian needs in Yemen. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has released an appeal for approximately $87 million in humanitarian requirements to assist 320,000 people in Abyan Governorate. The six-month Abyan Response Plan will supplement the current 2012 U.N. Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, bringing the total requested assistance countrywide to $591 million. The U.S. Government (USG) has provided nearly $108 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen in FY 2012, including more than $20.2 million from USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), nearly $68 million from USAID's Office of Food for Peace (USAID/FFP), and approximately $19.7 million from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (State/PRM). The USG's humanitarian assistance addresses the needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, and other vulnerable individuals throughout the country. In addition to the humanitarian assistance efforts, the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) has been working to clear landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in southern Yemen, particularly in Abyan. The center has sent six technical teams to Doafa, Zinjibar, and Ja'ar towns, Abyan, to clear landmines, and is providing mine risk education to alert returnees to the risk of UXO. International donors have also begun providing significant amounts of food assistance to respond to Yemen's high levels of food insecurity and acute malnutrition.