Seven-week-old Yemeni twins arrive near death after three-day hunger walk

Severe acute malnutrition is killing newborn twins in Yemen as a renewed surge in civil war forces displaced families to walk for days with no access to food or medical care. Raghad Hassan and her brother Raad, who are only seven weeks old, arrived at a hospital in the port city of Aden in a state of critical distress. Their father, a local shepherd, had to carry them for three days on foot after their village in the Kahboub mountains was overrun by Houthi rebel fighters. The infants arrived with visible ribs, rapid shallow breathing, and severe dehydration. Doctors described them as being barely alive. The twins had been fed only water for the final leg of their journey because the war has made baby formula unaffordable for their family. This tragic case highlights the immediate physical toll that conflict takes on the most vulnerable members of society, turning a hospital admission into a fight for basic survival against starvation and exposure.

The collapse of an informal ceasefire in the summer has triggered a massive resurgence in violence and humanitarian crisis across the country. The United Nations reports that approximately 800,000 people have lost access to lifesaving aid due to the fighting. More than 250,000 individuals have been displaced from their homes as Houthi forces have advanced rapidly along the Red Sea coast. This military push has completely cut off Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, trapping civilians who are now facing soaring food prices and a lack of essential supplies. The internationally recognized government is attempting to push back against the rebels with the support of Saudi air strikes, but the result is a chaotic environment where civilian infrastructure is crumbling. Hunger is no longer just a background issue in Yemen; it has become a primary weapon of war, spreading faster than the conflict itself and creating a crisis within a crisis that international aid agencies are struggling to contain.

In Aden, hospitals are overwhelmed by the influx of malnourished children and displaced families seeking refuge. Medical staff are operating with limited resources, often having to make difficult decisions about who receives care when beds and supplies are scarce. One supervising nurse, who fled the war herself in 2018, intervened to ensure the twins received treatment despite the lack of available beds. She arranged for the infants to share a space to save their lives, demonstrating the personal toll the war has taken on healthcare workers who are themselves refugees. This individual act of defiance against the system highlights a broader failure in the humanitarian response. As new displaced families arrive daily, the gap between the needs of the population and the available aid continues to widen. The situation in Yemen underscores how quickly a civil war can unravel social safety nets, leaving millions to fend for themselves against a backdrop of active combat and economic collapse.