Yemen: new fighting displaces almost 250,000 people from homes

New fighting in Yemen has forced almost a quarter of a million people from their homes. Many residents of the city of Mocha have ended up in the Atira refugee camp in the desert near the town of Waht in Lahij province, 250 km from home. There is no water, and the number of families living in the camp has nearly doubled in recent weeks to 310.

A road to a camp with no water

According to Doctors Without Borders, the new arrivals include Mahir, a 19-year-old fisherman. He described how he got there: “The roads were already closed. We walked for a day and a half, then took a bus. It was terribly far.” Reaching the camp did not end the ordeal: “For about a week we stayed with the other people who had fled. We slept under trees until we were given tents.”

Fatima, who fled the Houthis with her eight children, also complains about the lack of water: “I have no money for bottled water, and the water in the tanks is salty.” The camp has no toilets either.

Aid falls short

Many Yemenis are being forced to flee not for the first time. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 5 million people in Yemen have to live far from home, and 22 million Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian aid.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says aid is available for only 12% of refugees. Of the 31 million dollars (676 million Czech crowns) allocated for emergency assistance, only 3.78 million has actually been received.

The Houthis advance south from Taiz

The humanitarian situation, already worsening because of the renewed fighting, could soon deteriorate even further. The Houthis are trying to push southeast from Taiz province into Lahij province: on October 30 they entered the Maqatira district.

The Institute for the Study of War suggests that this advance may be an attempt to prepare a future march on Aden. In any case, it makes life harder for the residents of Taiz, a city of a million people, which is being almost completely encircled. The Houthis already control all the main supply roads leading from Aden to Taiz, which lies high in the mountains.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz