Britain announces £10 million in emergency aid for Yemen

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LONDON, United Kingdom — Britain announced £10 million in emergency humanitarian aid for Yemen on Friday, its foreign office said, citing displacement from the escalation since early September.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the money would be split between three agencies.

The World Food Programme will receive £5.5 million. UNICEF will receive £3.5 million. The International Organization for Migration will receive £1 million.

The funding covers child nutrition and food supplies, emergency healthcare for women and children, and vaccines against life-threatening diseases, the department said.

It said the package would provide nutrition support to 30,000 children.

A further 35,000 women and children would gain access to emergency healthcare, and 10,000 children would receive vaccines, according to the announcement.

Stephen Doughty, the UK minister for the Middle East, announced the package.

“The humanitarian situation that is unfolding is catastrophic, with many displaced,” Doughty said.

“Today’s package of support will provide essential access to food, healthcare and nutrition support for the most vulnerable Yemenis impacted by the recent escalation,” he said.

Doughty said the Houthi escalation was having devastating consequences and undermining regional stability, in addition to causing civilian deaths.

Abda Sharif, Britain’s ambassador to Yemen, said the Houthis’ responsibility for the escalation was clear and that Britain held the group accountable.

The Houthis dispute that account. They accused Saudi Arabia on 18 September of carrying out 26 airstrikes on areas under their control within 24 hours, and about 300 attacks across their territory over the previous week, Al Jazeera reported.

The Yemeni government said its forces killed 30 Houthi fighters and wounded more than 60 in clashes in the al-Waziiyah district of Taiz province over the same period, according to the same report. Yemen Herald has not independently verified either set of figures.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday it had intercepted two ballistic missiles headed for Khamis Mushait and two drones aimed at the Riyadh region. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Maliki, its spokesman, announced the interceptions. No casualties were reported.

Saudi Arabia reported one death in Taif governorate earlier in September after intercepting a Houthi drone, Al Jazeera reported. Houthi-linked media reported deaths from Saudi strikes in Taiz and in Abs.

The breakdown of the British package rests on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s own announcement. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of the allocations.

Britain has been one of Yemen’s larger bilateral donors.

The House of Commons Library says the UK provided more than £1 billion in aid to Yemen between 2015 and April 2024.

Annual allocations peaked at £260 million in 2019. They fell to £77 million in 2022, the lowest figure since 2015, before rising to £102 million in 2023.

The government announced £144 million for 2024/25 in January 2025, £5 million above the plans set out by the previous administration in May 2024.

The new package follows a rise in displacement.

The UN Security Council said on 18 September that at least 125,000 people had been displaced across Yemen since early September.

Council members condemned in the strongest terms continued Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, including attacks affecting civilian and energy infrastructure, and expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia.

They stressed the importance of fully implementing Resolution 2216, adopted in 2015, and demanded the unconditional release of 73 detained UN personnel.

The Council affirmed Saudi Arabia’s inherent right to self-defence in accordance with international law, and called for preventing the Houthis from acquiring arms and military assistance.

Members backed UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg in his efforts towards a negotiated, inclusive, Yemeni-led and Yemeni-owned political settlement.

They reiterated their condemnation of attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab, and said continued escalation would further exacerbate the humanitarian situation.

UNICEF said on 25 September that an estimated 71,000 children had been displaced in three weeks.

The agency said at least 15 children had been killed and 14 injured since 3 September, and that three more were reported missing. Akhil Iyer, its country representative in Yemen, gave the figures at a briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNICEF said 243 schools had closed or suspended classes, affecting more than 137,000 students.

Those figures marked a rise from the ones the agency gave earlier in the month. On 16 September UNICEF said nine children had been killed and 12 injured since 3 September, and that 26 health facilities it supports had been disrupted.

More than 104,000 people had been displaced at that point, including over 57,000 children in two weeks, the agency said.

More than 2.2 million children under five are projected to be acutely malnourished in Yemen this year, the agency said. More than half a million of those cases are severe.

The UN humanitarian response plan for 2026, issued in March, puts more than 22 million people in need of assistance and 18.3 million as acutely food insecure.

The plan records 5.2 million internally displaced people. It seeks USD 2.16 billion to reach 12 million of them.

Resolution 2216 imposed a targeted arms embargo on the Houthi leadership and demanded that the group withdraw from areas it had seized, including Sanaa.

Grundberg has held the special envoy post since 2021.