Yemen Teeters on the Brink of Total Collapse Amid Funding Shortfalls and Political Fragmentation

After more than a decade of devastating warfare, millions of Yemenis are fighting for survival as humanitarian funding evaporates, public services disintegrate, and rival regional powers vie for influence. The United Nations has issued a stark warning, describing a nation that is effectively “hanging by a thread.”

The gravity of the crisis was captured in recent images released by AFP, showing a woman in a displacement camp near Taez boiling leaves to feed her grandchildren. Despite the desperation depicted, the international community has largely overlooked the unfolding catastrophe.

“After a decade of conflict, Yemen’s people are hanging by a thread, and that thread is fraying,” warned Edem Wosornu, director of crisis response at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in mid-April.

Louis-Nicolas Jandeaux, humanitarian advocacy and development finance manager at Oxfam, noted that this UN warning confirms a decline that aid organizations have witnessed for years. Yemen, already one of the world’s poorest nations before the civil war began in 2014, remains the poorest country in the Arab world.

Dwindling Humanitarian Aid

The protracted war between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government—supported by a Saudi-led coalition—has resulted in over 377,000 deaths and the displacement of 4.5 million people. Today, more than half of Yemen’s 40 million citizens require humanitarian assistance. Specifically, 2.2 million children under five suffer from acute malnutrition, and nearly 19 million people lack access to essential healthcare.

The UN reports that the 2025 humanitarian response plan has received only 25 percent of its required funding, leaving Yemen as one of the three most underfunded crises globally. Jandeaux told RFI that significant cuts to USAID and development aid from other wealthy nations have exacerbated the shock.

While aid cannot resolve the systemic issues, experts argue it is vital to prevent further deterioration. Jandeaux highlighted a “vicious cycle” of security failures, water shortages, floods, and droughts, noting a growing global disinterest in this “forgotten crisis.” Consequently, aid agencies have been forced to scale back food assistance and protection programs. Furthermore, the Houthis continue to arbitrarily detain 73 UN staff members in northern Yemen.

A State of Perpetual Limbo

Although a 2022 UN-brokered truce reduced large-scale combat, blockades persist and intermittent clashes continue. The country exists in a precarious state of neither war nor peace.

Daily life remains grueling. Oxfam reports that public-sector salaries are frequently delayed or suspended, and those that are paid have been decimated by inflation and currency depreciation. The World Bank further confirms that the national economy is under severe strain.

Regional instability has also driven up the cost of essential imports. Because Yemen relies on other nations for 90 percent of its food, the 2022 spike in wheat prices caused by the war in Ukraine hit the population hard. More recently, U.S. strikes in March 2025 and Israeli attacks last summer have caused significant civilian distress.

“More and more communities are now going without basic necessities, and we are seeing diseases return in places where they had previously been eradicated,” Jandeaux stated.

Journalist Quentin Müller observes that the state has essentially failed. “People need public services. They need a state. But the state has failed and is absent.” This collapse is deepened by Houthi attacks on government-held ports, which have stripped the government of its remaining revenue sources.

The Struggle for Regional Influence

Without a comprehensive peace agreement, Yemen has become a proxy arena for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Rather than forming a united front against the Houthis, rival factions in the south and east have spent years fighting one another based on their alignment with Riyadh or Abu Dhabi.

“People no longer know who governs them,” one woman told the news site Muwatin in June 2025. “What matters to us is electricity, water and jobs, rather than slogans promising ‘liberation’ or being subjected to foreign agendas.”

Since the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia has asserted dominance in areas outside Houthi control, including the appointment of a new government in Aden in February. Afrah Nasser, a former member of the UN special envoy’s office, noted that Riyadh’s current approach reflects a realization of the limits of military force.

This shift has created tension with the UAE, which previously exercised influence through the Southern Transitional Council—an organization Saudi Arabia dissolved earlier this year.

The “Leaking Pipe” Dilemma

Saudi officials have promoted a “new era” characterized by transparency, anti-corruption measures, and sustainability. This includes reported investments exceeding €400 million and a $150 million provision of fuel products to power stations through 2026, a critical necessity during extreme summer heat.

However, Saudi Arabia has also restructured the security apparatus, replacing UAE-aligned figures with loyalists, often from Salafist circles. Müller notes that Riyadh has added $90 million to the budget to attract these new officials with competitive salaries.

Experts argue this model is unsustainable. “The fact that one country is paying another country’s budget is highly unusual,” Müller explained. “And the Saudis do not want to spend billions and billions because they know Yemen is a leaking pipe.”

Reunification seems unlikely as Saudi Arabia increasingly views Houthi control of the north as a political reality. While a peace agreement may eventually materialize in the long term, it remains a distant prospect, particularly as the Houthis are demanding billions in compensation from Saudi Arabia.

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