According to the WFP, the proportion of food-insecure households in these areas has risen to 74 percent within just a few weeks. The government-controlled areas are home to around 10 million people.
The UN agency said the recent security crisis has had a devastating impact on food security, while tens of thousands of people have been displaced and access to food supplies has been disrupted.
Displaced families arriving outside Aden and around the mountainous city of Taiz are reportedly reaching safety without adequate food or water, with many forced to leave their belongings behind.
Prices of basic food items, particularly wheat flour and cooking oil, are also rising. Yemen imports around 90 percent of its food requirements, making disruptions to supplies particularly damaging.
The WFP said access to frontline areas such as Taiz is becoming increasingly difficult because of the fighting. The agency has expanded its humanitarian operations but warned that it needs an additional $109 million within the next few weeks to prevent its food stocks and available funding for aid operations from running out.
Without the additional funding, the WFP said it could struggle to meet the needs of 152,000 people recently displaced by the fighting, as well as 1.4 million people who were already receiving assistance.
The renewed fighting has been described as the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthi forces, amid continuing cross-border attacks.
According to Reuters, renewed conflict could alter the balance of power and control in Yemen and potentially affect shipping routes in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who already control much of northern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have reportedly taken control of the country’s entire Red Sea coastline from forces belonging to the Saudi backed internationally recognised government.
The WFP has also warned of wider consequences from potential disruption to two major Middle Eastern shipping routes, the Bab al-Mandab Strait near Yemen and the Strait of Hormuz on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula.
The agency said disruption to these routes, combined with continued disruptions in the Black Sea caused by the Russia Ukraine conflict, could push food and fuel prices higher and worsen food insecurity globally.
Meanwhile, a new analysis released by UN Women on Friday warned that escalating tensions in the Middle East and disruption to the Strait of Hormuz could leave an additional 11.7 million women and girls facing food insecurity by the end of this year across 28 countries, including Yemen, Sudan and Lebanon.
