UNHCR says more than 250,000 people displaced inside Yemen since August

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GENEVA, Switzerland — More than 250,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen since August 1, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday, as fighting pushed families toward Taiz, Lahj and Aden.

Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesman for the agency, gave the figure at a news conference in Geneva. He said the count covers displacement between August 1 and October 17.

“The numbers displaced have now reached over 250,000,” Saltmarsh said.

He said the agency is “obviously deeply concerned about the escalating displacement situation.” He said the figures were still climbing.

The total is up from the nearly 213,000 the agency had reported previously.

UNHCR said Taiz accounts for 76 percent of departures. It said the same governorate hosts 52 percent of the newly displaced.

Lahj hosts 23 percent of newly displaced people, according to the agency. Aden hosts 13 percent.

Saltmarsh said the most immediate needs identified so far are shelter, food and multi-purpose cash assistance.

Yemen Herald could not independently verify the displacement count. The account rests on UNHCR’s own assessment, and no independent confirmation of the figure has been published.

The agency said shelling had intensified in Taiz, “including in residential areas and around health facilities.” It said strikes were reported in Aden, including near key civilian infrastructure.

UNHCR said insecurity and restrictions along key routes continue to limit humanitarian access and the movement of people.

By October 17, the agency and its partners had assessed 12,283 displaced households across Abyan, Aden, Marib, Lahj and Taiz.

About 2,050 of those families have no shelter, UNHCR said. Shelter partners have reached 3,166 households.

Around 33,700 families still need shelter assistance, according to the agency. It described the humanitarian response as severely underfunded.

Displacement inside the country has run alongside movement out of it. UNHCR said Djibouti had recorded 3,836 new arrivals and Somalia 242 as of Saturday.

Those counts include both refugees and returnees, the agency said.

A boat travelling from Djibouti to Yemen capsized on the night of October 8. UNHCR said 139 bodies have been recovered and 109 of the dead identified.

The agency said 82 survivors have been identified and are receiving support.

Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said on Tuesday that road closures and insecurity were keeping supplies, including fuel, out of Taiz and the surrounding area. He said UN agencies and partners were working to bring in goods and medical supplies.

Dujarric said the closures leave “millions of people” at risk of losing access to essential goods and services. He called for the roads to be opened.

UNICEF put the number of displaced children at about 110,000 in an update covering September 3 to October 10. It drew the overall displacement total for that period from the International Organization for Migration.

The agency said new displacement rose 26 percent in the week ending October 6.

Taiz held the largest concentration of displaced people in the week to October 10, UNICEF said, with 19,950 people, or 70 percent of the total.

UNICEF said 98 health facilities in Taiz are partly functional or out of service. It said 85 schools in Lahj have closed because of the fighting.

The agency said it needs a further 13.1 million dollars to sustain and widen its response in Yemen. It said about 68 percent of its requirements remain unfunded.

UNICEF said fighting and fuel shortages threaten water systems in Taiz that serve an estimated 3 million people, among them at least 1.6 million children. Akhil Iyer, the agency’s representative in Yemen, told a briefing in Geneva that Taiz is “already one of Yemen’s most water-scarce areas.”

IOM recorded the displacement building through September. It logged 76,000 people displaced by mid-September and more than 145,000 by the end of the month.

By October 7 the migration agency put the total above 200,000 across 10 governorates. It said Taiz accounted for 57 percent of the displaced at that point, followed by Lahj, Aden, Abyan and Hodeidah.

IOM said shelter was the most cited urgent need, named by 35 percent of displaced people, with food at 33 percent and cash assistance at 22 percent.

Fighting resumed in Yemen in July, after an uneasy four-year truce. A Saudi-led coalition backs the internationally recognised government against the Houthis.

The Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi ports in July. UN and government accounts say the group seized territory along the Red Sea coast in September.

UN agencies say that since early October the group has encircled Taiz and blocked the road linking the city to Aden, the interim capital.

The Houthis took Sanaa in 2014 and hold much of the north and west. Government forces and allied units hold Aden and large parts of the south and east.

The government’s counteroffensive, named Operation Dawn of Yemen, aims to retake Houthi-held territory including the capital.

Yemen’s humanitarian response plan for 2026 identified more than 22 million people in need. It sought 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million of them.

The plan recorded 18.3 million people as acutely food insecure. It counted more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition.

UNHCR said the Kharaz refugee camp in Lahj hosts 9,490 refugees. The camp’s schools closed again on October 11 because of deteriorating security, and access restrictions continue to affect the site.