The civil war in Yemen, which has been going on for more than 7 years, deepens the humanitarian crisis in the country day by day. According to the United Nations (UN) Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), approximately 21.6 million people in Yemen are in urgent need of humanitarian aid. Emphasizing once again that the Yemeni people are going through hard times due to years of war, natural disasters and economic crisis, the organization stated that approximately $4.3 billion is needed to help those in need.
Yemen was dragged into a civil war in 2014 after pro-Iranian Houthis overtook the capital Sana’a and forced the internationally recognized government to flee to Saudi Arabia. A coalition that was formed by regional allies, Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), intervened in March 2015 to repel the Houthis but has not been able to defeat them in 7 years of conflict. Houthis control about 80 percent of the country’s population and metropolitan centers.