UNHCR says more than 280,000 are displaced in Yemen and its appeal is only 19 per cent funded

30 October 2026

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said more than 280,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Yemen and that aid teams often cannot reach them. Matthew Saltmarsh, a UNHCR spokesperson, said many displaced families cannot reach the agency's supplies and in many cases it is too dangerous for staff to reach them. Yemen also hosts more than 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers, about 9,500 of whom shelter at Kharaz camp in Lahj governorate in the south-west, close to the front line. At Kharaz, food, health care and water services continue with difficulty while schools, legal services and documentation work are suspended. Thousands of people still make dangerous sea crossings from the Horn of Africa to Yemen. UNHCR's Yemen appeal is only 19 per cent funded. The agency linked rising needs to supply chain disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, and said 11 containers of relief from Dubai, carrying 3,000 kits for over 20,000 people, were due to arrive.