A cramped room in Yemen’s capital which has been partitioned into two sections is home to Mohamed al-Tihami and his family of six.

The 37-year-old plumber, like many in the impoverished country, is struggling to make ends meet.

“I hardly manage to cover my family needs between the rapid price rises and the few work opportunities,” al-Tihami said.

Despite his spartan living conditions, al-Tihami laments that half his income is spent on rent.
“I barely make 35,000 riyals ($ 160) a month, sometimes less than that, and it goes to nothing other than my family’s essential requirements and home rent,” he said.

Yemen was once known to the Romans as Arabia Felix - “Happy Arabia” - thanks to its fertile land that contrasted with the peninsula’s northern desert.

Today, the country’s 23mn people are suffering from poverty and food shortages.
A recent UN World Food Programme report said that 45% of the population is suffering from “food insecurity”, which is defined as difficulty finding, or affording, adequate food.
Among these, 22%, or almost 5mn people, are classified as severely food insecure - a figure that has almost doubled since 2009, according to the report.

“Yemen is suffering from a serious economic meltdown that marks it as one of the 10 most food-insecure countries with the highest poverty rates in the world,” said Mustafa Nasr, the head of Yemen’s Studies and Economic Media Centre, a non-governmental group.
A number of factors have combined to push the country to the brink.

It is using up its limited water resources faster than they can be replenished. Fuel price increases add to the cost of food brought from outside the immediate area.

The rising food prices have had a major impact on a country that is heavily dependent on imports, while inflation has hit purchasing power.

The situation was aggravated by last year’s political crisis, which led to a split in the army between supporters and opponents of then-president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Widespread violence and a collapse in security ensued.

Although Saleh stepped down and his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi took office in February following a single-candidate presidential election, the new leader is still grappling with his predecessor’s legacy.

The UN estimates the country has 545,000 internal refugees, including many from the province of Saada in the north, where government forces have been fighting an eight-year war with the Houthi, a Shia Muslim rebel group.

Workers in Yemen’s private sector have been among those feeling the fallout from the turmoil of the last two years.

“I was working in tourism for many years, as a guide with a prominent tourism agency,” said Saleem Abdul-Qadir, who is in his late 20s. “It used to be my main source of income.”
He added: “I was dismissed from my work because the tourism sector was completely paralysed and my employer was unable to pay our salaries.”

One-third of Yemeni households have gone into debt simply in order to buy food. Among the severely food insecure, 35% of household expenditure goes to staple foods alone, such as bread and rice.

The World Food Programme warns of grave consequences if the situation continues.

“In the current situation where families are trapped in extreme vulnerability, any new shock no matter how minor could easily push millions over the edge,” it said.