ADEN — Nearly 147,000 people have been displaced across Yemen this month as fighting intensifies in several parts of the war-torn country, a Yemeni government body said Sunday.
The Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons Camps documented the displacement of 21,583 families, comprising 146,943 people, between Sept. 1 and 18 as a result of deteriorating security conditions.
The displacement was recorded across eight provinces: Taiz and Lahj in the southwest; Aden, Abyan and Shabwa in the south; Al-Hudaydah in the west; and Hadhramout and Al Mahrah in the east.
Taiz received the largest number of displaced people, with 11,534 families comprising 80,792 people arriving across 15 districts, according to the report.
Lahj ranked second, receiving 5,472 families comprising 38,304 people across nine districts.
The government body also recorded the arrival of 1,622 families, comprising 7,162 people, in Aden, most of whom were hosted by local families across several districts.
In Al-Hudaydah, 1,471 families comprising 10,297 people were displaced to the districts of Hays and Al Khawkhah, while another 1,278 families comprising 8,946 people arrived in Abyan.
The body also recorded 110 displaced families in Hadhramout, 70 in Al Mahrah and 26 in Shabwa.
It called on international and local organizations to provide “urgent, life-saving assistance” to displaced people, warning that delays in the humanitarian response could “exacerbate the crisis and increase pressure on host communities.”
The surge in displacement comes amid a broad military escalation along Yemen’s western coast and in parts of Taiz province, where the Houthis have advanced and seized positions previously held by government forces.
Fighting has resumed on several fronts in Taiz, Marib and Al Jawf in the north and Al Bayda in central Yemen as part of a military escalation that began in early July, marking the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce took effect in April 2022.
The fighting intensified in September, with the Houthis taking control of several strategic positions in Al-Hudaydah and Taiz provinces, including the strategic city of Mokha, and extending their advance as far as Mayun Island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Source: Saudi Gazette