A UN official warned Wednesday that up to half a million people could be displaced as conflict escalates and the humanitarian situation worsens in Yemen’s southwestern Taez province, mainly in Hodeida. “Between 100,000 and half a million people could be displaced as the conflict and humanitarian situation continue to worsen,” said Shabia Mantoo, Yemen spokesperson … Read more
A closure of the Hodeida port would “bring disaster to Yemen,” which is already on the brink of famine, the new head of the UN’s World Food Programme warned Wednesday. There are rising fears that a Saudi-led military coalition fighting rebels in Yemen could attack the Hodeida port, through which most of the country’s food … Read more
Yemen’s commercial food imports are at a record low, driving up the cost of staples in what is now the world’s largest food security crisis, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Wednesday. International concern for the lives of tens of millions of Yemenis is rising amid fears of a military attack on Hodeida, a vital Red … Read more
A new round of peace talks between Yemen’s warring sides should begin by the end of May, the UN mediator said Wednesday, as alarm grows over the country’s humanitarian crisis. UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told AFP that negotiations were underway to stave off a feared military attack on the vital Red Sea … Read more
Yemeni protestors reached the Red Sea city of Hodeida Tuesday, ending a weeklong march from the capital to demand the rebel-held port be declared a humanitarian zone. Some 25 protestors made the 225-kilometre (140-mile) walk, dubbed the “march for bread”, to call for unrestricted aid deliveries to Yemen, where Iran-backed Huthi rebels have battled government … Read more
The United Nations called Thursday on the Saudi-led coalition intervening in Yemen not to bomb the rebel-held port of Hodeida, a key entry point for aid to the war-torn country. Jamie McGoldrick, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said Hodeida on the Red Sea, which is under the control of Iran-backed Huthi rebels, is a … Read more
A group of Yemeni protestors set out from rebel-held capital Sanaa Wednesday on a 225-kilometre (140-mile) march to call for unrestricted aid deliveries to the war-torn country. The “protest for bread” marchers will head for the Red Sea port city of Hodeida — also controlled by Iran-backed Huthi insurgents — which is the main entry … Read more
The United Nations on Monday rejected a call by the Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen for the key port of Hodeida to be placed under its supervision. The coalition made the appeal following an attack on a boat carrying Somali refugees off the coast of Yemen that killed 42 people, and as the country … Read more
The Arab coalition battling rebels in Yemen called Sunday for Hodeida port to be placed under UN supervision, after dozens of Somali refugees were killed on a boat offshore. “We are also aware of allegations that the attack was carried out by a helicopter and naval vessel belonging to the Saudi-led coalition,” it said in … Read more
The UN has confirmed the deaths of refugees after reports that 31 Somalis were killed in a helicopter gunship strike on a migrant boat off Yemen. A number of refugees were killed in the incident, some of whom were Somalis carrying UN documents, the United Nations refugee agency said. At least 31 people died, news … Read more
Dozens of Somali refugees including women and children have been shot dead aboard a boat on the Red Sea, Yemeni officials and the International Organization for Migration said Friday. The bodies of 33 refugees were taken to hospitals in Yemen’s rebel-held port of Hodeida, a health official in the city said, adding that 35 wounded … Read more
At least 22 Shiite Huthi rebels were killed Monday in an air strike by pro-government Arab coalition warplanes as well as clashes in western Yemen, officials said. The strike on a military base in the city of Bajil, northeast of provincial capital Hodeida on the Red Sea, killed 16 rebels, said a medical official and … Read more
Fighting around the historic Yemeni port of Mokha has forced more than 48,000 people from their homes, a UN official said Wednesday, with many facing the threat of further displacement. Shabia Mantoo, Yemen spokeswoman for the UN’s refugee agency, told AFP more than 48,000 people had left Mokha and the nearby town of Dhubab in … Read more
Wrapping their children in plastic sheets to stave off the winter cold, Yemeni families driven out of the historic port of Mokha are struggling to adjust to the harsh life of internal displacement. “We were doing fine in our own homes, on our land,” says Zahra Aqlan, 55, who fled the Red Sea town in … Read more
Seven people detained in a rebel-held part of Yemen for using recycled boxes originating in Saudi Arabia to distribute aid have been released, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Thursday. “We are greatly relieved by the release of our staff members and the driver,” said Mutasim Hamdan, the organisation’s Yemen country director. “They are in … Read more
Yemeni rebels have abducted a dozen local staff working for the Norwegian Refugee Council in the Red Sea district of Hodeida, a minister and local sources said Monday. Local sources told AFP the employees, all Yemeni citizens, were taken in a Thursday raid over accusations they had accepted and distributed aid from a Saudi-led coalition, … Read more
The conflict-driven food crisis in Yemen could become a full-blown famine this year, the UN’s humanitarian chief has warned. Two million people need emergency food aid to survive and child malnutrition has risen 63% in a year, Stephen O’Brien told the UN Security Council. A child under five dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes, … Read more