ADEN (The Thursday Times) — More than 340,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since fighting between the government and the Houthis escalated in August, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday, warning that blocked roads were delaying aid to families who have lost everything.
Almost all of the displaced come from three provinces, according to the UN agency’s Displacement Tracking Matrix. Taiz accounts for 224,819 people, or 66 per cent, Lahj for 72,018, or 21 per cent, and Hodeidah for 40,782, or 12 per cent. Many have fled within their own province, adding to the strain on host communities that were already struggling to meet basic needs.
“Imagine having to leave everything behind, not knowing where your family will sleep that night or how you will find food and clean water for your children,” said Abdusattor Esoev, the IOM’s chief of mission in Yemen. “This is the reality for hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen.”
Esoev said restrictions on key transport routes were holding up essential supplies as needs grew. “Every day that assistance is delayed puts more families at risk,” he said, warning that without more funding “the gap between what families need and what we can deliver will only widen.”
The agency said it had reached 21,384 families since August 1 with emergency shelter, household items, clean water, sanitation supplies, and cash. It has also given 70,535 primary healthcare consultations and protection help to 8,242 vulnerable people. In October, the UN refugee agency put the number displaced by the fighting at more than 250,000.
Fighting in Lahj and Taiz
On Saturday, the government-aligned Giants Brigades said they had repelled a Houthi attack in the Al-Mudharaba district of Lahj, the province that borders the interim capital, Aden, to the north and west. The government-run Saba news agency reported airstrikes on Houthi reinforcements in Wadi al-Sahya, in the Al-Shamayatayn district of Taiz. There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.
The main roads linking Aden to the rest of the country pass through Lahj, and parts of the province lie close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Government forces hold Taiz city, but the Houthis have advanced in recent weeks through rural and coastal districts of Taiz, Yemen’s most populous province, including near the Red Sea port of Al-Mokha. Last week the government fortified Aden as Houthi fighters pushed towards its edge, and health officials in besieged Taiz have recorded thousands of disease cases.
The government launched an offensive it calls Operation Dawn of Yemen on October 5, with the stated aim of restoring state institutions and retaking Sanaa, according to Rashad al-Alimi, who heads the Presidential Leadership Council. The escalation has ended the relative calm that had held across much of Yemen since April 2022.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2015. The Houthis, who have held Sanaa since 2014, have also fired missiles and drones at the kingdom in recent weeks, including a claimed attack on Riyadh’s airport this week.
