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GENEVA: Three-in-four \u200bfamilies in parts of Yemen are going hungry from the \u201cabsolutely devastating\u201d impact of a surge in \u200cfighting, which has displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions, the World Food Programme said on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthi group since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022. \u200bThe renewed conflict could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes.<\/p>\n Within just a few weeks, the \u200bfighting has driven the share of households without sufficient food to 74% in government-controlled areas accessible \u2060to WFP, the UN hunger body\u2019s Assistant Executive Director for Programme Operations told reporters in Geneva. The total population of \u200bgovernment-held areas is estimated at around 10 million people.<\/p>\n \u201cThe effect of this latest flare-up of insecurity on the food security \u200bsituation threatens to be absolutely devastating,\u201d Hollingworth told reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.<\/p>\n The Houthis, who already control most of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa, seized the country\u2019s entire Red Sea coast last month from Saudi-backed forces of the internationally recognised government, based \u200bin the southern port of Aden.<\/p>\n Displaced families are arriving outside Aden and around the mountain city of Taiz without any \u200bwater or food, as many had to leave everything behind, WFP said.<\/p>\n Prices of basic food staples such as wheat flour and vegetable \u200coil are \u2060rising in a country that imports around 90% of its food.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are looking at a hunger crisis that is going to grow as it persists,\u201d Hollingworth said, adding that frontline areas like Taiz were increasingly hard to access due to the fighting.<\/p>\n WFP said it was scaling up its response but unless it gets around $125,000 in funding within a few weeks \u200bit will run out of \u200bfood stocks and money \u2060to help the 152,000 newly displaced persons inside the country, as well as the 1.4 million people it is already supporting.<\/p>\n Hollingworth also pointed to the potential ripple effects of disruption \u200bto two major chokepoints in the Middle East: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen \u200bat the mouth \u2060of the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n That, as well as disruption in the Black Sea due to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, risk driving up food and fuel prices and deepening food insecurity globally.<\/p>\n A \u2060new \u200banalysis published by UN Women on Friday said an additional 11.7 million \u200bwomen and girls across 28 countries including Yemen, Sudan and Lebanon could face food insecurity by the end of the year, due to escalation in \u200bthe Middle East and disruption to the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n