ADEN, Yemen, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said Wednesday that funding gaps in 2025 left nearly 2 million women and girls in Yemen without essential health and protection services.
Yemen faces "a protracted humanitarian crisis marked by conflict, political fragmentation, economic collapse, and severe access constraints," UNFPA said, with women and girls disproportionately affected. Reproductive health services and protection from gender-based violence remain under severe strain, increasing risks of maternal deaths, unintended pregnancies, and exposure to violence.
UNFPA said it continued life-saving programs, including emergency obstetric and newborn care, family planning, and community midwifery. But the agency received only 25.5 million of the 70 million U.S. dollars requested under the 2025 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, forcing a scale-back of nearly 40 percent of services.
The agency called for urgent international support to prevent further deterioration.
Earlier Wednesday, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it will suspend operations in Houthi-controlled areas and terminate 360 Yemeni staff contracts starting March 31. The decision affects Sanaa and other Houthi-held provinces. A WFP official said funding gaps and a lack of safe operating conditions drove the move, adding that 38 staff members remain detained by the Houthis.
Yemen has been at war since 2014, when Houthi forces seized Sanaa and much of the north, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015. The conflict has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. ■
