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Half of Yemen's war-torn 14 million people face "hunger-prone conditions," warned the UN.
Humanitarian coordinator Mark Lowcock said surveys showed that the number of people who depended exclusively on aid for their survival exceeded expectations by three million.
There was a clear risk of famine "far greater than anything professionals in this sector have experienced in their working lives," he added.
Doctors say that the number of deaths related to food-related factors is increasing.
Yemen was devastated by a conflict that intensified in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened after the rebel Houthi movement took control of a large part of the country. from the west of the country and forced President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to flee abroad.
According to the UN, at least 6,660 civilians were killed and 10,560 injured. The fighting and the partial blockade of the coalition also left 22 million people in need of humanitarian aid, created the world's greatest food security emergency and led to a cholera outbreak that affected 1.1 million people. people.
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In a speech to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, Lowcock said famines were a rarity in the modern world, which made the situation in Yemen "shocking".
A famine is declared when three thresholds of food insecurity, acute malnutrition and mortality are reached. The three criteria are:
- At least one in five households faces an extreme lack of food
- More than 30% of children under five suffer from acute malnutrition
- At least two out of every 10,000 people die every day
Lowcock said that the one-year-old assessments, which are being repeated, revealed that in 107 of Yemen's 333 districts, the first two thresholds were already exceeded or dangerously close.
The third threshold for the number of deaths was more difficult to confirm.
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The UN and its humanitarian partners are providing assistance to eight million Yemenis every month
He explained that many deaths were hidden because only half of Yemeni health facilities were functioning and many Yemenis were too poor to access those who were open. Very few families report deaths at home.
By the end of 2017, the charity Save the Children estimated that 130 children were dying each day of hunger and extreme illness – nearly 50,000 during a year.
The UN warned of famine in Yemen last year, but Lowcock said the situation was "now much worse" for two reasons.
"First of all, because of the huge number of people at risk," he said. "Our revised assessment (…) indicates that the total number of people facing pre-famine conditions, which means that they depend entirely on outside help for their survival, may soon reach no not 11 million, but 14 million. "
"And second, beyond the numbers, while millions of people have benefited from emergency food aid for years, the help they receive is enough to survive. Do not prosper, "he added.
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"The toll is unbearably high.The immune system of millions of people benefiting from a survival aid for years literally collapses, making them, especially children and the elderly, more likely to succumb. to malnutrition, cholera and other diseases. "
Lowcock said the humanitarian crisis was exacerbated by the economic crisis in Yemen and continued fighting around the Red Sea rebel-controlled Hudaydah port, where the country traditionally imported 90 percent of its food. .
He called for the cessation of hostilities around all the infrastructure and facilities on which the aid operation was based; protection of the supply of food and essential goods; a greater injection of currency into the economy; increased funding for the humanitarian operation; and to all parties to engage in peace talks.
