Yemen’s humanitarian crisis growing by the hour amid spike in displacement

“Our resources are very, very, very limited and our stocks will be depleted very soon,” said Abdusattor Esoev, Chief of Mission in Yemen for the UN migration agency, IOM.

In just two weeks since clashes erupted between Saudi-backed Yemeni Government forces and Iran-backed Houthi militia, more than 112,000 people have been displaced across Aden, Hudaydah, Abyan and Ta’iz.Taiz. 

Years of conflict, economic collapse and environmental disaster have already displaced nearly 4.8 million Yemenis, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

The rapidly escalating hostilities along Yemen’s western coast have also forced more than 3,000 people to embark on dangerous boat journeys across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to safety in Djibouti, where host communities risk being overwhelmed.

Saving lives

“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. Preventing further loss of life must take precedence,” said Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the UN Information Service in Geneva.

Speaking at a media briefing, Ms. Vellucci warned that the delivery of UN humanitarian assistance in Houthi-controlled areas had become “untenable”, with UN personnel detained and the global body’s premises occupied by representatives of the Yemeni opposition forces.

Locked up

“As of today, 73 UN personnel remain arbitrarily detained by the Houthi de facto authorities, some of them since 2021. In addition, five former UN personnel and dozens of personnel from non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, and diplomatic missions remain detained,” Ms. Vellucci continued.

Echoing concerns about the humanitarian crisis, IOM chief of mission in Yemen Mr. Esoev urged the international community “to come to Yemen’s aid” with urgently needed support including food, shelter, health, water and sanitation for all those uprooted by the violence.

Give me shelter

He recounted the testimony of one woman with four small children who had been displaced in Taiz, where she gave birth to a baby in the open, “without shelter, medical care and any other assistance”. 

For protection, her family found a torn piece of plastic tarpaulin “barely covering their heads. These are the real cases that we are seeing in the field,” the IOM official said.

Before the latest escalation in Yemen, nearly half of the country’s 41 million people needed aid, with one in two people in Government-controlled areas in the grip of high levels of hunger, according to UN-backed food insecurity experts, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform.

Also briefing from Yemen, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, highlighted growing concerns for the many women-led households where mothers are the sole breadwinners, such as Aziza, in Ras Al-Arah. 

“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,” said Francesco Galtieri, Country Representative, UNFPA. 

“She told to us that she's exhausted, and she really hopes that beyond having kept their lives, there will be something else they can build.”

The emergency has increased health needs across Yemen where the UN World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that the country is already facing “multiple concurrent health risks”, including cholera, measles, dengue, diphtheria, malnutrition and trauma injuries.

In an assessment carried out before the escalation in fighting, “already out of more than 5,000 health service delivery units, only 60 were fully functioning,” WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told journalists in Geneva.

Dangerous crossing

In addition to those displaced in Yemen, thousands more have sought safety in Djibouti, by crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Most arrivals have been reported in Obock, Khor Angar, Moulhoule and Godoria.

“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,” said Sandrine Desamours, Representative in Djibouti, for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. “We saw them arrive with very little, some arriving without their family members. And others are also arriving for the second time, having already fled Yemen during the 2015 crisis.”

The UN refugee agency official noted that many of the men who have arrived had left family members in Yemen but were “hoping to be able to go back to Yemen to retrieve them. Unfortunately…there is a shortage of fuel in Yemen and they are not able to return.”

In some cases, the Djibouti Coast Guard has given fuel to some boats left stranded in the open seas and tugged others to safety. “We are discussing with the Government various ways that we can provide assistance so that people can reach the shores and are able to be provided with protection, peace, safety, and assistance,” Ms. Desamours continued.

IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, Alexandre Coissac, explained that the 3,000 refugee arrivals from Yemen represented a significant challenge to “a generous country that is already hosting a large number of refugees”.