Yemen: ICRC’s humanitarian impact in 2025, a year of deepening crisis
In 2025, Yemen remained one of the world’s most acute humanitarian crises and the fourth largest ICRC operation globally.
Far from showing signs of slowing down, the conflict depicted a landscape of intensified airstrikes, depleted services, interrupted livelihoods and communities bearing the deep scars of war. Throughout this year of immense suffering, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the Yemen Red Crescent Society (YRCS), stood consistently alongside millions of people whose lives have been torn apart, bringing lifesaving assistance, dignity and hope where it was needed the most.
Saving lives, protecting dignity
Across Yemen, the ICRC intensified support to health facilities, ensuring that tens of thousands could access medical care despite health systems being under significant strain. Teams provided critical supplies and training to local hospitals and primary care centers which are struggling to keep services running amid shortages of staff and equipment.
When a deadly attack struck Sa’ada Prison in April, killing and injuring dozens of detainees, ICRC and Yemen Red Crescent teams were among the first to respond, helping evacuate the wounded, managing the dignified care of the dead, and calling for stronger protection for civilians trapped in conflict zones. The damaged clinic of the prison has been fully renovated and equipped by the ICRC to allow providing vital medical care services for the detainees.
Reuniting families, restoring hope
2025 marked significant strides in addressing one of war’s deepest wounds: separation. After sustained dialogue with all sides, a historic agreement was reached for the release and repatriation of over a thousand of detainees in January 2025, bringing joy to families who have been waiting in anguish for year. As a new of prisoner’s exchange opportunity is pointing in the horizon with the preliminary agreement reached between parties to proceed with the largest such similar exchange of the conflict, the ICRC remain prepared to play fully it’s neutral intermediary role and ready to oversee safe reunifications of families long torn apart.
Water, sanitation and community support
Responding to drought and deteriorated public services and infrastructure, ICRC’s economic security programs assisted over 1.57 million people nationwide through multiple projects involving food consumption, food production, living conditions, income support, and livelihoods. This included also large-scale livestock vaccination, with 4.9 million animals vaccinated alongside cash relief, food rations, essential household items, and diversified livelihood inputs.
ICRC’s water projects provided clean water for hundreds of thousands of Yemenis in 2025 alone – vital for health, hygiene and survival in communities where basic services are facing serious challenges.
Teams continued essential work to reduce the threat of explosive remnants of war, helping local partners clear and destroy dangerous ordnance that still scars farmland, roads and neighborhoods across governorates such as Hodeida city, Hays or Taiz/Dubab on the Red Sea cost, reducing the risk of death and injury for children and families trying to rebuild normalcy.
Neutral intermediary in a polarized landscape
Operating in Yemen’s contested environment brought profound humanitarian concerns over the recent escalation of conflict in the south and east of the country last December. ICRC teams supported the YRCS as they evacuate the dead and wounded and deliver urgent assistance to medical facilities and affected communities. The ICRC has also provided medical supplies to help treat the wounded and has maintained dialogue with all relevant actors to facilitate humanitarian access.
Why our support matters
Through every challenge in 2025, the ICRC brought help to those most affected by conflict. From medical care to clean water, from family reunification to risk education. But the scale of suffering remains vast, and the need for sustained live-saving operation is needed, However, the necessity for a robust funding and global support and contribution has never been greater. Yemen’s families still struggle for basic dignity and survival. Letting down at this crucial moment is not an option for the ICRC.
Despite some operational and security challenges faced by the institution during the conduct of its work in 2025, underscoring immense challenges for daily neutral humanitarian work, the ICRC remain committed to standing beside Yemeni people.
Priorities for 2026 in addressing humanitarian challenges
The ICRC’s priorities for 2026 focuses on addressing escalating humanitarian needs amidst growing military tensions, financial constraints, and evolving conflict dynamics. The organization’s approach emphasizes neutrality, impartiality, and independence to ensure safe access to vulnerable populations.
The ICRC will focus on emergency preparedness and response along internal frontlines and during military operations, fostering dialogue with governments, armed actors, and communities to promote respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
A people-centered, multidisciplinary approach will enable timely, integrated assistance in areas of greatest need, with operational capacity shifting closer to frontlines.
Support for detainees, missing persons, and their families remains central, alongside efforts to facilitate detainee releases and the exchange of human remains as a neutral intermediary.
Strengthening partnerships, particularly with the Yemen Red Crescent Society (YRCS), will enhance coordinated responses and build local capacity, ensuring impactful and sustainable humanitarian action.
Through these efforts, the ICRC reaffirms its commitment to protecting and assisting vulnerable populations in conflict-affected areas.
