Escalation in Yemen conflict sparks fears of humanitarian disaster
The Houthis have stepped up attacks on crucial shipping through the Red Sea.
LONDON -- A recent escalation in fighting has alarmed international aid agencies and the U.N., with a potential return to full-scale war carrying the risk of deepening one of the world’s most enduring humanitarian crises.
The conflict between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, based in the capital of Sana’a, and the internationally recognized Yemeni government, supported by Saudi Arabia, has been largely frozen for several years. But over the weekend, renewed fighting on the ground led to fears of a return to full-scale conflict.
In total, 676 people were killed or injured and more than 20,000 people were displaced in the renewed fighting over the weekend, according to the World Health Organization.
Ground fighting intensified at the beginning of September, with troops clashing on multiple fronts. Videos verified by ABC News showed Houthi militants entering the city of Mocha unopposed on Sept. 10, more than 50 miles south of the previous front line. Controlling the city would give the Houthis control of nearly all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, according to analysts.
In the air war, the Houthis have taken aim at Saudi Arabia's oil facilities near its border with Yemen, accusing the Saudis of arming Yemeni government forces as a way of undermining Yemen's sovereignty. Saudi Arabia said 73 people were injured in strikes in just the last few days.
After those strikes, the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV station claimed that Saudi Arabia had struck 40 targets over a span of a few hours. The claim has not been independently verified, but would indicate an escalation in the conflict in recent weeks.
While international attention has been focused on the fate of the Strait of Hormuz, in recent months the Houthis have also stepped up attacks on crucial shipping through the Red Sea, another waterway critical to the global economy.
Before a truce between the Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized Yemeni government came into effect in 2022, the U.N. estimated there were more than 377,000 direct and indirect deaths attributed to the conflict over eight years of civil war.
An estimated 150,000 people were killed in violence between 2014 and 2021, with 85,000 children dying from starvation during the three-year period, according to Save the Children.
“We are really, really on the verge of a massive nutrition crisis in Yemen,” Emmanuel Massart, the MSF coordinator in Yemen, told ABC News last month. “The situation is already quite dire in Yemen… [It is] one of the worst humanitarian crises that we see.”
Massart spoke to ABC News after returning from a field assignment earlier this month. Then, he described the fighting as “very intense,” with “sporadic” clashes on the frontline. Since then, the situation has deteriorated still further.
“We have currently, in the south of Yemen, a significant cholera epidemic,” Massart said, lamenting that the escalating conflict meant resources that could be used to fight disease are divided.
The International Medical Corps, another nonprofit operating in Yemen, said it recorded 1,227 cholera cases at its facilities in August, with children under 5 accounting for more than half of reported cases.
One potential factor that could lead to an escalation would be any resumption of full-scale war between Iran and the U.S., according to Ahmed Nagi, senior analyst at the Crisis Group think tank.
The Houthis receive backing from Iran and are considered an Iranian proxy by the U.S., Israel and others, who have also designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. But the group effectively works as a government in the parts of Yemen it controls, while also attacking Red Sea shipping to advance its aims, he said.
“The fate of the conflict is joint between the Houthis and the Iranians, because at the end of the day, and for the Houthis, if you speak with them, what's happening against Iran is not just an issue for Iran, it's an issue for the axis of resistance,” Nagi said. “And they believe that if the Iranians are weakened, they will be weakened. Or if Iran is defeated, they will be the next.”
However, with the military conflict escalating, the Houthis have proved to be “resilient” in the face of bombardments from the U.S. and Israel. Notably, between March and May 2025, a monthslong bombing campaign failed to deter the group in the long term from attacking international shipping in the Red Sea. As well as attacking Red Sea shipping, the Houthis periodically have launched missiles at Israel over the past few years in support of the Palestinians.
The U.S. and others primarily view the Yemen conflict through a purely security lens, according to Nagi, meaning the potentially dire humanitarian impact is often overlooked.
“It’s the big blind spot that we are facing at this moment,” he said. “When talking about the conflict in Yemen and it comes to the impact on civilians, the humanitarian catastrophe, they receive less attention than anything else.”
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