The UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg warned the UN Security Council on Thursday that continuous fighting between warring sides in Yemen risks the country returning to full-scale conflict.

While Grundberg said that the levels of violence in the country remained below the pre-2022 truce period, he stated that Yemen’s warring sides continued to engage in military activities and escalatory rhetoric. Grundberg said that clashes in Yemen’s cities, such as Al Hudaydah, Shabwa and Lahj, led to the unnecessary loss of lives. He also noted that Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea threatened Yemen’s regional stability.

According to Grundberg, the economic situation of the majority of Yemenis continued to decline, wile natural disasters, such as severe flooding in the cities of Al Hudaydah and Hajjah, disproportionately affected vulnerable communities. Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya also emphasized the economic hardships of Yemenis. She stated that 62 percent of households reported that they lack sufficient food and over 600,000 children in Yemeni government-controlled areas are estimated to be acutely malnourished.

Grundberg called for depoliticization of the country’s economy and collaboration across political lines to resolve the conflict in Yemen. Grundberg said, “I must stress that positive signals alone are insufficient. We expect that priority be given to the Yemeni people and that positive signals be followed by concrete actions that contribute to de-escalation and the advancement of peace.”

On July 8, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to extend the mandate of the body monitoring the ceasefire agreement in Yemen’s Al Hudaydah Governorate, the UN Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA). The Security Council urged the Secretary-General to deliver monthly reports on the situation in Al Hudaydah by adopting Resolution 2742 (2024), which allows the mission to act until July 14, 2025.

According to UN data, Yemen is facing a humanitarian and political crisis with 80 percent of the population needing humanitarian aid and protection. Since the start of the civil war, three million people have been displaced from their homes and the collapse of sanitary and economic institutions has led to one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.

Relatedly, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned on August 18 that an acceleration of acute malnutrition has made famine a real possibility in some Yemeni government-controlled areas. The IPC estimated that 609,808 children under age five will be acutely malnourished by the end of the year and 222,918 pregnant or breastfeeding women would be acutely malnourished.