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Yemen · Survival · Moderate · impact 2 of 5
First reported 22 October 2026 · latest 22 October 2026 · 1 reports from 1 outlet
Part of Yemen
One development in Southwest Yemen clashes
Two newborn twins in southwest Yemen were hospitalized with severe acute malnutrition after their family fled fighting and lost its home and livelihood, leaving them at risk of death.
"Just skin and bone," said a doctor, shaking his head, as he looked at their wasted limbs. Raad was the sicker of the two - his ribs visible and his chest heaving as he took rapid, shallow breaths. He was barely bigger than the hands of the nurse who carried him gently to be weighed and measured.
They came into the world prematurely, as fighting surged in Yemen's long-running civil war between Houthi rebel fighters and government forces. When the Houthis reached their village in the Kahboub mountains in south-west Yemen, their family of seven was forced to flee amid bombs, missiles, and drone attacks the twins protected only by blankets. What followed was three days on foot heading for the port city of Aden.
Raghad, like her brother, was diagnosed as having severe acute malnutrition As we walked through the unit with its pink walls, some doors were padlocked shut. There are 22 beds, but staff told us only 13 patients were admitted at a time - the most critical cases - due to the lack of international funding, staff, and equipment. That's a bitter pill to swallow for Dr Noor Mohammed, a harried young doctor.
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They came into the world prematurely, as fighting surged in Yemen's long-running civil war between Houthi rebel fighters and government forces. When the Houthis reached their village in the Kahboub mountains in south-west Yemen, their family of seven was forced to flee amid bombs, missiles, and drone attacks the twins protected only by blankets. What followed was three days on foot heading for the port city of Aden.
"Just skin and bone," said a doctor, shaking his head, as he looked at their wasted limbs. Raad was the sicker of the two - his ribs visible and his chest heaving as he took rapid, shallow breaths. He was barely bigger than the hands of the nurse who carried him gently to be weighed and measured.
That can be as deadly as a bullet. More than 250,000 people have been displaced over the past three months, the UN says Malnutrition in Yemen is a crisis within a crisis - another frontline in a devastating civil war. Hunger did not arrive with conflict, but it's spreading with the latest bloodshed.
Hunger did not arrive with conflict, but it's spreading with the latest bloodshed. The United Nations says around 800,000 people can no longer receive lifesaving aid and more than 250,000 have been displaced, after an informal ceasefire collapsed in the summer. Since then the Houthis have made a lighting advance along the Red Sea coast, and they have now completely cut off Yemen's third largest city, Taiz.
Hunger did not arrive with conflict, but it's spreading with the latest bloodshed. The United Nations says around 800,000 people can no longer receive lifesaving aid and more than 250,000 have been displaced, after an informal ceasefire collapsed in the summer. Since then the Houthis have made a lighting advance along the Red Sea coast, and they have now completely cut off Yemen's third largest city, Taiz.
Raghad, like her brother, was diagnosed as having severe acute malnutrition As we walked through the unit with its pink walls, some doors were padlocked shut. There are 22 beds, but staff told us only 13 patients were admitted at a time - the most critical cases - due to the lack of international funding, staff, and equipment. That's a bitter pill to swallow for Dr Noor Mohammed, a harried young doctor.
They were his only livelihood. As doctors monitored his twins, he cared for his three older children - all aged under five. They lingered on a bench in hospital reception without toys, bedding or baggage of any kind.
So, they spent the night outside, on the street - one more family with war wounds that cannot be seen but will disfigure a generation. Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Lee Durant and Suaad Al Salahi Houthi missile attack on Yemeni presidential palace kills five, minister says On Yemen's desert battlefield, a war with global consequences is being waged Children brave snipers and mortars to go to school near Yemen front line
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