UN agencies report 233,077 people displaced in Yemen since conflict began in June

United Nations humanitarian agencies said at a press conference in Geneva that 233,077 people have been displaced in Yemen since the conflict began in June. They also said hostilities are still escalating and called for sustained aid access to everyone in need across the country, especially in Taiz governorate.

Zoe Brennan, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, gave the displacement figure. She said it ran up to the day before the briefing and included 121,530 people in Taiz alone. She said there are serious concerns about protecting the very large number of families, women, children and vulnerable people who have been forced to flee.

Ricardo Pires, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said the agency is struggling to reach children in need in Taiz. He named the continuing escalation and restrictions on movement as the causes, including the cutting of main roads that link the governorate to others, in particular Aden. He said about 110 thousand of the newly displaced since the start of September are children. He also said UNICEF has verified that 30 children were killed and 28 injured in the latest escalation. Pires said the latest wave of violence is destroying what little stability remains for children who have already endured years of hunger, displacement and disrupted schooling.

Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, voiced similar concerns about Taiz. He said the city has become completely isolated and its hospitals are running out of supplies as fighting reaches urban areas. According to the World Health Organization, 12 hospitals in the city hold only enough fuel for four days. They are also short of oxygen and medicines, and their stock of surgical supplies has fallen to zero. He said energy and oxygen are urgently needed, particularly for dialysis and intensive care patients. He expressed particular concern about a rise in cholera cases. He said the organization needs safe, guaranteed and sustained access to Taiz and the rest of Yemen.

Across the Bab al-Mandab strait, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed a cholera outbreak at the Markazi camp in Djibouti. Its spokesperson, Matthew Saltmarsh, said about 31 cases have been recorded so far. He said 20 people have recovered, ten are still receiving medical care and one person has died. He added that more than 4000 people have so far arrived in East Africa from Yemen. Of these, 3800 refugees reached Djibouti and about two hundred reached Somalia.

The agencies' accounts do not say who is fighting or which side is responsible for the road closures, the deaths of children or the hospital shortages. The figures come from the agencies themselves, and this paper has not checked them. The agencies are also aid providers in Yemen, so they have a stake in the access they are asking for.