One household’s day by day battle displays alarming meals shortages in Yemen | Hunger | USAEMALL.com

Sanaa, Yemen — Until a few years ago, Mehdi Galeb Nasr earned a living pushing an ice cream cart through the streets of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, moving between neighbourhoods to support his family.

His livelihood became impossible after his eyesight began to deteriorate rapidly. “Selling ice cream was my main source of income,” Nasr told Al Jazeera. “I pushed my cart, selling ice cream to children across the capital. Blindness in one of my eyes began to take its toll on me.”

As his vision worsened, he would get lost and was unable to find his way at night. “I couldn’t see. Sometimes I had  to sleep outside until the sun came up so I could see my way home.”

Now 52, Nasr lives with his wife and five daughters in Sanaa. With no steady employment and limited options due to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s most impoverished and conflict-ridden nations, he has no choice but to find other ways to make ends meet.

His plight, and worse, is shared by many in Yemen.

The country is entering a perilous new phase of food shortages with more than half the population – about 18 million people – expected to face worsening hunger in early 2026, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The warning follows new projections under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger-monitoring system that were released earlier this month and show an additional million people at risk of life-threatening hunger.

It also comes as Yemen is experiencing its latest internal conflict with external regional actors involved in fighting in the nation’s south. Years of war and mass displacement have shattered livelihoods and limited access to basic health and nutrition services. Declining humanitarian funding, unpaid salaries, inflation and international sanctions on Yemen have exacerbated the crisis.

Yemen ⁠has been a source of heightened tensions in recent months between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The main southern Yemeni separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC)  – which Saudi Arabia says is backed by the UAE – gained control of areas across southern and ​eastern Yemen in December, advancing ‌to within reach of the Saudi border, which the kingdom considered a threat to its national security, prompting it to carry out air strikes there.

Saudi-backed fighters in Yemen have ‌since largely retaken those areas.

Going to bed hungry

Nasr now collects plastic bottles in the streets where he once sold ice cream. His wife and children accompany him so he does not get lost.

His work now is a last resort of informal labour that brings in a small amount of money, barely enough to cover a basic meal for a family of seven. On the day he spoke to Al Jazeera, Nasr said he earned just 600 Yemeni riyals — a little more than $1. “It’s not enough to cover what we need to eat for dinner before we go to bed,” Mehdi added.

Despite this, such work has become the only option for many Yemenis these days, as they struggle to ensure a daily food supply.

For Nasr and his family, putting food on the table has become a daily struggle. “Currently, we do not even have gas to cook anything,” he said.

“When we have gas, the only thing we can afford to cook is rice.” Even that is not always possible.

“Last night, me, my wife and five daughters went to bed without eating dinner,” he added.

Nasr links his family’s dire situation to the wider conflict and economic collapse that have shaped life in Yemen.

“Due to the foreign aggression against us that began back in 2015, life became more difficult for all Yemenis,” he said.

Informal work, reducing meals, and enduring nights without food will continue to be the reality for half the population.

Nasr and his family are one of millions of Yemeni households living below the subsistence level in severe poverty. He says his greatest concern is not knowing whether he will be able to provide food for his daughters from one day to the next.