In 2021, Yemen observed yet another year of deterioration of the military, macroeconomic, financial, social, and humanitarian situation. The armed conflict continued to affect civilians at even a higher rate, and internal displacement hit another record (total of 4.3 million internally displaced people). The number of frontlines increased, with the battle for Marib intensifying from March and - more dramatically - from September, with advances by warring parties, new displacement, and the city and its peri-urban areas densely populated by internally displaced people (IDPs) under range of fire and taking a higher toll on the civilian population.
The protection situation for millions of civilians remained severe. While figures remain unverified, it is estimated that some 2,500 civilians were killed or injured by armed violence in Yemen in 2021, marking a 20% increase from 2020 and breaking a two-year downward trend. It is reported that one out of five casualties was a child. Within a trend dotted by mass casualty incidents, increases in casualties were noted in Marib and Saada.
The crisis continued to shrink the economy, reverse pre-conflict development gains, and exacerbate vulnerabilities. In the last months of 2021, the Yemeni rial in the Internationally Recognized Government (IRG)-controlled areas reached its lowest-ever rate against the US dollar, with devastating effects on the purchasing power of the population. The loss of Government revenues, commercial import restrictions and rising commodity prices pushed the Yemeni population into a depth of poverty and unemployment.
Remittances from abroad, once the largest source of foreign exchange in the country, were further hit by measures against foreign Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia, provoking the involuntary return of thousands of Yemeni migrants. At the same time, the restrictions caused by the blockade on seaports and airports prevented adequate supplies to enter Yemen, hindered critical imports and aggravated the fuel crisis.
With lower revenues and resources prominently devoted to the military effort, all authorities in Yemen lost their capacity to ensure regular remunerations to the civil servants and to workers in critical public sectors. Coupled with depletion and destruction, and with more than half of health facilities and more than one third of education facilities not functioning, the capacity to provide reliable services to the population further declined.
Though new food insecurity/IPC assessments as well as malnutrition levels have not yet been released by year-end 2021, it is expected that the rise of food prices, the loss of purchasing power, productivity shortcomings caused by displacement, destruction, and contamination of land by explosive hazards, will have further deteriorated the situation.
Displacement, economic decline, lack of public resources, poor water and sanitation services continued to have negative repercussions on overall health conditions. Multiple waves of COVID-19 hit Yemen and although the officially reported cases were only around 10,000 across the period of the pandemic, the impact of COVID-19 remains unknown due to the country’s limited capacity to test and monitor numbers of cases. Moreover, a new outbreak of the polio virus was detected at the end of 2021 and required a prompt reaction by specialized UN agencies.
The conflict continued to provoke distress amongst the population, destruction of objects and infrastructures necessary to the survival of the population, contamination of land. The protracted nature of the displacement, coupled with the socioeconomic downturn, continued to impact the lives of millions of Yemenis, pushing them into a spiral of negative coping strategies and alimenting protection risks such as child labour, early marriages, forced recruitment, violence within the family and tensions amongst communities
The operating environment in Yemen did not improve. It remained challenged by access constraints and restrictions already experienced in the past; recurrent bureaucratic obstacles, particularly for UNHCR refugee partners in northern Yemen; risks of aid diversion; and new gender-based access constraints imposed by authorities in the north, particularly affecting female humanitarian workers.