IOM: 74,000 Yemenis displaced in 2021

As a result of the ongoing war in Yemen, more than 74,000 Yemenis have been displaced since the beginning of this year 2021, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) announced yesterday.

“From 01 January 2021 to 9 October 2021, IOM Yemen’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) estimates that 12,413 households, a total of 74,478 Individuals, have experienced displacement at least once,” the IOM said in a report.

It added that, between only 3 and 9 October 2021, some 504 households with a total of 3,024 individuals, were displaced.

“The largest number of displaced people who fled their homes were monitored in the Yemeni governorates of Ma’rib, Shabwah, and Al-Bayda,” IOM pointed out.

READ: 70% of Yemenis are at risk of starvation

Since the beginning of February 2021, the Houthi group has intensified its attacks in Marib in order to seize it, as one of the most important strongholds of the Yemeni government headquarters. The city also enjoys a remarkable wealth of oil and gas.

Impoverished Yemen has been mired in a civil conflict for nearly 7 years, during which more than 233,000 lives were claimed, and 80 percent of the population— 30 million people —has become dependent on aid in the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.

The conflict escalated when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 to support the military and the government forces against the Iranian-backed Houthis, who control several governorates, including the capital city of Sana’a.