Yemen: Millions of Children Malnourished as Aid Falls Short and Fails to Address Root Causes

"My daughter is dying. Save her," Tahani's father pleaded, after years of knocking on the doors of officials and aid organizations in the hope of saving his eight-year-old girl.

According to the United Nations, more than 2.2 million children under five in Yemen suffer from acute malnutrition, including more than half a million at severe levels.

The roughly 12-year war has left more than 22 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and 18.3 million facing acute food insecurity. Yet this year Yemen received only one-fifth of the $2.2 billion needed to help them.

Tahani's case led Al Jazeera Arabic to investigate the stories of other children enduring similar suffering, and to ask: where are the billions of dollars in aid sent to Yemen going, and why has it not prevented children from falling into severe hunger and malnutrition?

Al Jazeera visualized where severe malnutrition is concentrated in Yemen, how aid funding is allocated, and why experts say assistance currently treats symptoms rather than addressing root causes.

Severe malnutrition rising among children

The search for answers took Al Jazeera to displacement camps, nutrition centers and hospitals.

The family of Jiyad Mohammed Jalal, not yet two years old, lives in al-Khadeesh camp in the Abs district of Hajjah province. The war forced them to leave Haradh district. Jiyad is severely malnourished. His weight has fallen to a dangerous level and he needs continuous treatment, making the hospital part of the family's daily routine.

Children like Jiyad only reach nutrition centers after displacement and poverty have already taken their toll. He is not an isolated case. According to field reports gathered by Al Jazeera, more than 200 malnutrition cases have been recorded in Abs over the past three years. In Dhale province, Al-Nasr Hospital admitted 269 children with acute malnutrition between January and August 2026.

Nearly a quarter of Yemen's acute malnutrition cases — 516,157 children — are severe.

Yemen's Ministry of Health and Population said that between January and July 2026 it recorded a rise in "severe" malnutrition cases among children under five compared with the same period in 2025.

According to the ministry and data analyzed by Al Jazeera Arabic, Taiz recorded 11,982 severe child malnutrition cases, followed by Aden (7,339) and Dhale (6,710).

These local figures do not by themselves provide a national measure of malnutrition prevalence, but they reveal something more important on the ground: cases are not confined to a single center, and pressure on nutrition services is spread across different parts of the country.

Taiz recorded 24,529 moderate malnutrition cases, followed by Abyan (15,366) and Lahj (11,893).

Treating symptoms, then returning to the same conditions

In clinics, treatment depends on severity. Severely malnourished children need a full medical assessment, and those with complications may require hospitalization.

Stabilized cases can be treated and monitored as outpatients under approved medical protocols.

Moderate cases are followed at clinics, where children receive therapeutic food or nutritional supplements and are checked periodically for weight and growth.

At al-Sumayya camp in Marib, Dr. Muajiba al-Mansouri runs a government nutrition clinic. Over the past year, she told Al Jazeera, the clinic treated 33 children with severe acute malnutrition, 85 with moderate acute malnutrition and 84 mothers.

According to her, food shortages or poor diets, disease, social conditions and feeding problems are all worsened by war, poverty and displacement. The World Food Programme (WFP) supports treatment of moderate cases, while supplies for severe cases come from UNICEF and the provincial health office.

At the time al-Mansouri spoke to Al Jazeera, her clinic had recorded no deaths from malnutrition thanks to timely treatment. At her clinic, four severely malnourished children regained their appetite and weight after their mothers learned how to provide therapeutic feeding. But a child saved at the clinic often returns to the very conditions that caused the problem.

Mothers face similar risks. An estimated 1.3 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished.

A mother who feeds her child also needs to be fed and cared for, but she lives in the same economic and health conditions as her family.

Needs expanding, response shrinking

According to UN agencies, about 14.4 million people need water, sanitation and hygiene services, and only about 59.3 percent of health facilities are fully functional.

Funding has never matched stated needs. According to Humanitarian Response Plan data, in 2022, $2.27 billion of the required $4.27 billion was funded. In 2024, the figure was about $1.51 billion of the $2.71 billion needed. The 2026 plan seeks about $2.16 billion but has so far been only 20.6 percent funded. These figures cover all sectors, not only malnutrition.

The shortfall comes as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recorded a sharp rise in cases at facilities it supports in the first half of 2026.

UNICEF said funding shortages have forced programs to prioritize life-saving treatment over prevention, and limited their ability to reach children in the areas of greatest need.

The Ministry of Health said severe cases among children under five rose in January-July 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. It said reduced WFP funding cut the program's reach by about half, from 122 districts to 62, so a drop in some registered cases does not mean the situation is improving. It added that government support through the budget, therapeutic food and health workers remains insufficient.

Billions for the response, yet malnutrition persists

As the investigation widened, Al Jazeera contacted organizations about Tahani's case. When they called her father back, they learned she had died. According to him, she died of hunger.

While Tahani struggled, millions of dollars continued to be allocated to humanitarian projects. According to documents gathered by the investigation, a Norwegian Refugee Council project in Hajjah had a budget of about $1.1 million and allocated roughly $353,000 to activities tied to the project's objectives. One beneficiary said he received cash support only once. A WFP project with Relief International, worth about $4.86 million, included more than $2 million for salaries and allowances and about $1.84 million for warehousing.

Mousa Alaya, an expert on humanitarian aid and war economies, argues that the question is not only how much money entered Yemen but what it changed. According to him, aid operates within a network of interests and stakeholders. It can save lives, but it cannot restore salaries, jobs or public services, nor end the war economy.