At least 290,000 have been displaced in Yemen since the country’s war re-erupted in August, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian office (OCHA), with a dire threat to pregnant women.
Fighting between forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally-recognised government and Houthi rebels has intensified, particularly in Taiz governorate and coastal areas, with thousands reported killed.
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An OCHA report published Friday warned that 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen face a rapidly deteriorating situation, with services disrupted and food and fuel prices rapidly rising. Among those recently displaced are 6,100 pregnant women, including 600 due to give birth within two weeks.
The UN has sent mobile teams and midwives to displacement sites, and aid groups have been able to deliver food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash to about 249,000 people – about three in four among the displaced.
The rise in displacement comes as the war has escalated on several fronts and reached across the border into Saudi Arabia, where on Saturday the Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted and destroyed a “hostile” drone over the Riyadh region.
“The relevant authorities are continuing to inspect the site,” coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki wrote in a post on X, but said no casualties had been reported. It is the second interception over the Riyadh region in as many days.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia said drones had been downed near MeccaMedina and Riyadh, along with a Houthi missile fired towards the kingdom’s south.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the group had launched drones towards Saudi territory, calling the claims “egregious lies”.
The group has repeatedly denied aiming at Islam’s two holiest cities, while claiming responsibility for attacks on the Saudi capital, airports and oil infrastructure.
The Houthis’ attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 10 killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, the most lethal attack on Saudi soil in more than a decade.
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud attended a G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, where he discussed the situation in Yemen with United States, Russian and European counterparts, according to the Saudi state news agency.
Prince Faisal and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand also issued a joint condemnation of the Houthi attacks on the kingdom on the sidelines of the meeting.
Aden under fire
Yemen’s internationally recognised government announced on Friday that the Houthis had fired at least three ballistic missiles at Maashiq presidential palace, the seat of government in Aden, the interim capital of Yemen.
They also fired missiles at Aden International airport, which had reopened on Thursday after a brief closure for repairs following an earlier Houthi attack.
Both the palace and the airport have been repeat targets for Houthi drone and missile attacks in recent weeks.
The cabinet of Yemen’s internationally recognised government denounced the attacks, calling the airport strike “a direct attack on the interest of citizens” and accusing the group of seeking to disrupt “legitimate institutions” by striking the palace.
Spokesman for Yemen’s government forces, Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, said on Friday they “neutralised” about 336 Houthi fighters and commanders and destroyed or damaged 112 vehicles, weapons and other equipment “in recent hours”.
Warplanes, drones, artillery and rocket launchers targeted the group’s command centres, troop concentrations and supply routes on fronts including Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda, he said.
A mounting civilian toll
One civilian was killed and five injured, including a child, in Houthi attacks across Taiz governorate, according to the government-aligned Saba news agency. The agency reported that a woman was shot dead, while the injuries came from shelling and gunfire.
The UN has verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 killed, half of whom are children.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said its field team in Taiz province has recorded thousands of Houthi violations between September 1 and October 29, with at least 189 civilians killed, including 38 children and 27 women.
The group said it recorded 23 field executions and more than 300 abductions or enforced disappearances.
Roads have also been closed by the fighting, blocking food, medicine, fuel and water to two million people in the vicinity.
Taiz city has been bitterly contested throughout Yemen’s civil war. After seizing ground to its south this month, including al-Turbah, the Houthis have tightened their grip around Taizleading to deteriorating humanitarian conditions within the city.
Yemen’s war broke out in September 2014, when Houthi forces captured the capital Sanaa, forcing the government south. The war intensified when a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened to support government-aligned forces in March 2015.
Following several truces between the two sides, fighting re-erupted after Yemeni government forces targeted Sanaa International airport, preventing a plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing. Since then, the Houthis have launched a sweeping offensive on Yemen’s coast, giving them control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait. Yemen’s government has announced the launch of an offensive to retake territories from the Houthis.
Source: www.aljazeera.com
