UN warns Yemenis fleeing clashes face hunger risk

UN agencies expressed alarm today at intensified clashes in Yemen’s Marib region and said the increasing number of displaced people are on the verge of food insecurity, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The International Organisation for Migration is watching with growing alarm increasing numbers of people are displaced in Yemen adding to the already worrisome few food security concerns there,” IOM spokesman Paul Dillon said.

“Hostilities in Yemen’s Marib governate have led to the displacement of at least 9,000 people in recent weeks, bringing the total number of displacements in that part of the country to more than 117,000 people,” he said at a UN briefing hosted in Geneva.

Dillon said that humanitarian partners estimate that 385,000 people are at risk of further displacement if frontlines shift.

The fighting could impact hundreds of thousands of Marib city’s estimated 3 million people.

The latest epicentre of violence is Sirwah, a mountainous district in Marib governorate.

“Sirwah district alone hosts around 30,000 displaced people in 14 displacement sites, three of which were directly impacted by fighting in recent weeks,” said Dillon.

READ: Scores of Yemen refugees arrive in Somalia