“It’s worse than we had thought,” said Jamal Benomar, the United Nations envoy to Yemen. “The latest figures for Yemen are not far from the situation in Sahel in Africa or Afghanistan, but unfortunately this is not attracting attention from the world.”

Hunger in Yemen — the poorest country in the Middle East — has doubled since 2009, according to the World Food Program. The ability of families to feed their children has deteriorated significantly in the last year as food and fuel prices have soared amid the political turmoil and economic activity has ground to a near halt.

About 10 million Yemenis, or 44 percent of the population, no longer have enough to eat, and 5 million are in need of urgent emergency aid, according to a report from the World Food Program in May. Over a quarter of a million children are so malnourished that they risk dying, and nearly half of all children under 5 years old are chronically malnourished, putting their physical and mental development at risk, the report said.