More than 250,000 people have fled renewed fighting in Yemen, UN says

More than 250,000 people have fled renewed fighting in Yemen, United Nations officials said on Tuesday, according to UN News. They voiced particular concern for people sheltering in the southwestern city of Taiz and the wider governorate, where access is “essentially blocked”.

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, blamed the Houthi fighters, who are formally known as Ansar Allah. “The Houthis’ closure of the only supply route linking Taiz to Aden is placing civilians at grave risk, blocking humanitarian aid and cutting off essential supplies,” he said. He appealed to the Houthis, who he said had encircled Taiz City, to let aid in immediately. In the French-language report, he also said civilians who wish to leave the city must be able to do so freely and safely.

The High Commissioner said 32 civilians have been confirmed killed across the governorate, including 14 children and nine women. The French-language report adds that his office also confirmed 115 other people wounded, among them 36 children and 34 women. Mr. Türk warned that the risk of death and injury is rising significantly as fighting moves closer to densely populated areas of the city.

The fighting resumed last month between the Houthis and the internationally recognized Government based in Aden. That ended the relative calm brought by the 2022 truce. Around half of those recently uprooted have sought shelter in Taiz.

Akhil Iyer, the Yemen representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund, spoke to journalists from Aden. “Taiz is certainly the number one concern at the moment in an ocean of concerns,” he said. He said many people have fled repeatedly and arrive in overcrowded camps or communities with little or no food and almost no clean water. He said garbage is piling up in Taiz city as sanitation services halt, and that diesel needed for water pumping stations is threatened by the blocked routes from Aden. The children’s fund had pre-positioned enough ready-to-use therapeutic food before the conflict escalated early last month, Mr. Iyer said. It could not be distributed to health facilities because “all of the routes are closed”.

The World Food Programme reported that wheat flour stocks in affected areas of Taiz are nearly exhausted. Mr. Iyer said 10 out of 16 districts in the governorate were already classed at emergency levels of food insecurity.

The World Health Organization’s spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, said 12 hospitals in Taiz had about four days of fuel left. Oxygen cylinders are in “daily deficit”, he said, and 115 of 127 essential medicines have stocks for about one week or less. The French-language report cites the organization as saying suspected cholera cases nationwide tripled in three weeks. UN News lists cholera and measles outbreaks, with suspected diphtheria and dengue.

Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, said access problems are keeping aid teams from those most in need, though protection work continues “where access allows”. He said some 65,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Yemen also need urgent support, most from Somalia and Ethiopia.

The UN is also a party to this story. The Arabic-language report says UN humanitarian organisations suspended operations in Houthi-controlled areas about a year ago, while the de facto authorities continue to hold 71 UN staff arbitrarily. Mr. Türk renewed his call for the release of all detained UN and non-governmental organisation staff.

The sources give no response from the Houthis or the Government in Aden to these statements. They do not say when the supply route might reopen.