UN agencies say 112,000 displaced in two weeks of fighting in Yemen
Yemen Herald News 
GENEVA, Switzerland — More than 112,000 people have been displaced in Yemen in two weeks of fighting between government and Houthi forces, UN aid agencies said Friday.
The displacement was recorded across Aden, Hudaydah, Abyan and Taiz, the agencies told a briefing in Geneva.
Hostilities have escalated rapidly along Yemen’s western coast, they said.
Abdusattor Esoev, chief of mission in Yemen for the International Organization for Migration, said relief stocks were running out.
“Our resources are very, very, very limited and our stocks will be depleted very soon,” he said.
Esoev urged the international community to come to Yemen’s aid with food, shelter, health care, water and sanitation for those uprooted by the violence.
The fighting pits forces of the internationally recognised government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia, against the Houthi movement, which is aligned with Iran.
Nearly 4.8 million Yemenis had already been displaced by years of conflict, economic collapse and environmental disaster, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the escalation had displaced more than 57,000 children.
The World Health Organization said Yemen was contending with several disease threats at once.
Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva that the country faced “multiple concurrent health risks”, listing cholera, measles, dengue, diphtheria, malnutrition and trauma.
An assessment carried out before the escalation found that of more than 5,000 health service delivery units in Yemen, only 60 were fully functioning, Jasarevic said.
WHO said the risk of cholera, measles, polio, dengue and malnutrition was growing among displaced communities living in crowded conditions with limited access to safe water and sanitation.
Aid delivery in areas held by the Houthis has become “untenable”, said Alessandra Vellucci, director of the UN Information Service in Geneva.
She said UN staff had been detained and UN premises occupied by representatives of Yemeni opposition forces.
“As of today, 73 UN personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthi de facto authorities, some of them since 2021,” Vellucci said.
She said five former UN staff and dozens of people working for non-governmental organisations, civil society groups and diplomatic missions were also being held.
Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office, urged the warring parties to pull back.
“Yemen civilians are already bearing the consequences of renewed full-scale hostilities and we urge all parties and those with influence over them to act immediately to de-escalate, protect civilians, and facilitate humanitarian access,” she said. “Preventing further loss of life must take precedence.”
Before the latest fighting, nearly half of Yemen’s 41 million people needed aid, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the UN-backed body that grades hunger.
One in two people in government-controlled areas were facing high levels of hunger, the IPC found.
The UN Population Fund said households headed by women were of particular concern.
Francesco Galtieri, the agency’s country representative, described a woman named Aziza who had fled Mocha for Ras al-Arah with four daughters.
“She came from Mocha with her four daughters and she’s one of those who had to run away under the shelling, got burned because of the shelling, and did not stop running until she could reach a safe place,” Galtieri said.
Esoev recounted the case of a woman displaced in Taiz who gave birth in the open, without shelter or medical care. He said the family found a torn piece of plastic tarpaulin that barely covered their heads.
Fighting along the western coast has also pushed more than 3,000 people onto boats across the Bab el-Mandab Strait to Djibouti.
Most have arrived at Obock, Khor Angar, Moulhoule and Godoria, UNHCR said.
Host communities in Djibouti risk being overwhelmed by the new arrivals, the agencies said.
Sandrine Desamours, the agency’s representative in Djibouti, said arrivals described fleeing under fire.
“At the reception centres, the new arrivals recount fleeing sudden bombardment, shelling, gunfire and having to fear for their lives; mothers quickly gathering their children and whatever they can,” she said.
“We saw them arrive with very little, some arriving without their family members,” Desamours said. “And others are also arriving for the second time, having already fled Yemen during the 2015 crisis.”
She said many of the men who arrived had left relatives behind and hoped to return for them, but a fuel shortage in Yemen had made that impossible.
Alexandre Coissac, IOM chief of mission in Djibouti, said the 3,000 arrivals from Yemen posed a challenge for a country that is already hosting a large number of refugees.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Yemen this week after the rise in violence.
Fighting had eased after a UN-mediated truce in 2022, but the war was never formally settled.
Houthi forces have taken ground along the Red Sea coast in recent weeks. Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, has said those gains are temporary, according to the state news agency Saba.
The figures cited at the briefing come from the agencies’ own reporting and operational data. Yemen Herald could not independently verify them.
The Djibouti Coast Guard has given fuel to some boats left stranded at sea and towed others to shore, UNHCR said.
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