UNICEF's Yemen representative, Akhil Iyer, described worsening child hunger and malnutrition at a press briefing in Geneva on 25 September 2026. He said he had visited a displacement centre in Aden the previous day, where families who had fled Mokha District were receiving care at a UNICEF-supported mobile clinic.

In the weeks preceding that briefing, mobile nutrition teams had screened nearly 2,900 children where safe humanitarian access was possible. More than one in four were acutely malnourished, including over 200 with severe acute malnutrition. Before the latest escalation, more than 2.2 million children under five had been projected to be acutely malnourished in 2026, over half a million severely. Iyer reported that nearly 130,000 people, including an estimated 71,000 children, had been displaced in the preceding three weeks, mostly within Taiz Governorate. He said 243 schools had closed or suspended learning, affecting more than 137,000 students.

At that briefing, UNICEF said it was expanding its emergency response to reach up to 231,000 people. By then, it had verified at least 15 children killed and 14 injured since 3 September, with three more reported missing. Iyer called on all parties to protect children and civilian infrastructure and allow safe, unimpeded humanitarian access.