WUNRN
CONFLICT IN YEMEN VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phbI3_RUZcQ&noredirect=1
Women’s Refugee Commission - https://womensrefugeecommission.org/about/staff/39-protection/current-crises/862-crisis-in-yemen
Yemen
Crisis – Women & Children
A
woman displaced by fighting carries her daughter at a refugee camp in al-Mazraq
near the northwestern Yemeni province of Saada. Photo by
Reuters/ Khaled Abdullah, courtesywww.alertnet.org.
An
estimated 50,000 people have had to flee their homes in the past month due to
escalating fighting in Yemen. The violence is restricting aid agencies’ access
to displaced civilians, further exacerbating the situation. In addition to this
latest spate of clashes, thousands have died and about 150,000 people have
been displaced since the
conflict began in 2004.
FIGHTING BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND REBELS
The conflict between government forces and Shiite rebels in northern Yemen has
been raging intermittently since 2004. In August, the government began its
“scorched earth” operation against the rebels.
Two cease-fires announced since then were broken by both sides after only a few
hours. The leader of the rebels has vowed to continue fighting, as has Yemeni President Ali
Abdullah Saleh. He said that the army is willing to fight the rebels for years if they do not
accept the government’s proposed cease-fire, indicating a potentially
protracted crisis for Yemeni civilians.
Meanwhile, the resurgent presence of al Qaeda and
a separate conflict between the government and southern seccessionists
threatens to further destabilize the country.
CIVILIANS CAUGHT IN THE FIGHTING
According to UN officials and aid groups, tens of thousands of displaced
Yemenis are stranded around the war zone, inaccessible to aid agencies. United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said that
local residents and displaced people in the city of Sa’ada are unable to leave
to seek safety and shelter elsewhere. “Although there is still no access to the
city of Sa'ada, UNHCR managed to distribute some assistance through a local NGO
partner,” he said.
There have been reports of clashes near
internally displaced people (IDP) camps as well as attacks on camps themselves,
and a government air raid in mid-September killed dozens of civilian refugees.
Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa,
said, “The raid left a high number of casualties, mainly women and children. They
had sought refuge in the makeshift camp of Al Adi to flee heavy fighting.”
UN officials have called for the establishment of humanitarian corridors to
delivery aid to internally displaced people both in and out of camps.
In addition to the lack of access, the relief effort has been further hampered
by diminishing provisions and heavy rains that irreparably damaged tents in
some camps. Aid groups are also concerned about alleged government blockades of
aid to civilians and have warned of the possibility of looting of
aid supplies as the economy deteriorates.
FEARS OF HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Yemen is one of the poorest nations in the Middle East. In addition to its own
internally displaced population, the country hosts some 150,000 refugees and
asylum seekers from countries like Somalia and Ethiopia, according to the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees.
UN agencies have called the current humanitarian situation dire and Oxfam has
warned that continued fighting could lead to an imminent humanitarian crisis.