UN: 172,000 Yemenis displaced in 2020 amid conflict 

Some 172,000 Yemenis have been displaced during 2020 due to the years-long bloody conflict across the country, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced in a report yesterday.

“Since the start of 2020 until 26 December, 28,659 families, representing 171,954 Yemenis, have been displaced from their homes due to several factors, mostly the country’s raging conflict,” IOM said.

IOM pointed out that “82 percent of the displacement was due to the conflict, while another 13 percent were due to natural disasters, especially in the governorates of Ma’rib, Al Hudaydah, Al Dhale’e, Taiz, Al Jawf and Hadramout.” It added that the remaining five per cent were due to “economic and health conditions caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.”

“Yemen’s official unit for the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Marib has recorded 54,400 displaced people during the period from 20 August to mid-November,” the UN organisation added, noting that the Houthis’ recent military escalation against Marib was the “main reason for the new displacement wave.”

Since 2014, war has driven poverty in Yemen from 47 percent of the population to a projected 75 percent by the end of 2019, according to the UN, which has classed the situation “the worlds worst humanitarian crisis”.

READ: UN: Half of Yemen will suffer famine next year