Houthis Besiege Thousands of Civilians South of Marib

Arab World

October 3rd, 7:49am

Aden - Mohammed Nasser

A girl pictured at a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Marib, Yemen (Reuters)

Houthi militias besieged thousands of civilians in the south of Marib, preventing food supplies, medicine, and fuel from entering the area, announced local and Yemeni human rights sources. Clashes intensified between government forces and Houthi militias in the Harib district. The militias closed the roads leading to the al-Abdiya district after blocking all the streets from the al-Bayda governorate. About 35,000 people live in tragic conditions and are unable to provide first aid. Yemeni human rights advocates and the Executive Unit for the IDP Camps in Marib warned that the residents and shops had run out of wheat stocks due to the high demand. They said that urgent intervention was required to save thousands of families after the militias isolated the district from the rest of the province. The Executive Unit appealed to the Resident Coordinator of the UN, Humanitarian Coordinator William David Gresley and international organizations to open safe corridors for humanitarian aid to reach the displaced families in the al-Abdiya district. It called on the UN and the international community to pressure the Houthi militia to stop its attacks on Marib and target the displaced. It stressed the need for urgent action to provide relief and immediate aid to affected families. Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) stated that about 3,800 individuals were displaced due to the clashes in Marib, Shabwa, and Abyan between September 19 and 25. IOM said that 635 families were displaced at least once, and the largest number of displacement cases was recorded in Marib with 398 families, Shabwa with 85 families, and Abyan with 57 families. According to the weekly update of the displacement movement, 12,000 families were displaced at least once, and 622 families were displaced two or three times due to the escalation of the conflict. Yemeni Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Moammar el-Eryani, confirmed that the displaced in Maerib governorate amount to 7.5 percent of the country's total population. Eryani warned of new waves of displacement of thousands of families, noting that families living in IDP camps in western Shabwa and southern Marib will be displaced for the second and third time. The Yemeni minister pointed out that dozens of families were forced to flee the districts towards the overcrowded city of Marib, which includes more than two million displaced people, amounting to 60 percent of the total displaced people in various governorates and 7.5 percent of the total population of Yemen. Estimates indicate that the displacement is the largest since the coup due to the continued Houthi escalation and the militia's indiscriminate bombing of populated areas and displacement camps. He called on the international community, the UN, the US, international envoys, and human rights organizations to assume legal and humanitarian responsibilities.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3223496/houthis-besiege-thousands-civilians-south-marib