Fighting near key Yemen port displaces over 6,000 — UN

HODEIDA, Yemen — A Houthi rebel advance near Yemen's lifeline port of Hodeida and a Saudi pullback have displaced more than 6,000 people, the United Nations said.

The insurgents on Friday took control of a large area south of Hodeida, a key port where the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire in 2018, after loyalist forces withdrew.

The pro-government forces gave no reason for the pullback.

"Some 700 families [some 4,900 people] were displaced" to Khokha, over 100 kilometres south of Hodeida, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said, citing Yemeni government sources.

It said "184 other families (about 1,300 people) were displaced further south" to the Red Sea coastal town of Mokha.

"No displacement has been reported within the areas that came under control of the de facto authorities," OCHA said in a statement Sunday, referring to the Shiite Houthis.

Citing aid partners on the ground, it said a 300-tent site for displaced people had been set up in Khokha, while authorities were reportedly seeking another site to cope with the influx.

But the UN also said the Houthi advance could result in “improved movement for civilians” between the provinces of Hodeida and Sanaa, and along roads connecting Hodeida city with other districts.

The United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) said on Monday that the latest developments “represent a major shift of the frontlines”.

It urged all parties “to protect civilians especially internally displaced persons”.

The Hodeida ceasefire was agreed at Yemen’s last peace talks in Sweden in 2018.

But clashes have since broken out between rebels and pro-government troops around the city which is vital for the import of humanitarian aid.

Two military officials told AFP that fighting also erupted Saturday when the rebels tried to push south into government-controlled territory, but loyalist forces had repelled the advance.

A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 to shore up the government, a year after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed and millions displaced in Yemen’s conflict, in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Battle for Marib rages 

The Iran-backed insurgents have also kept an offensive to capture Marib, the government’s last stronghold in the north.

The coalition said Monday that it killed more than 140 Houthi insurgents in the past 24 hours in air strikes in the provinces of Marib and Al Bayda, to the south.

The coalition has been reporting high death tolls in almost daily strikes since October aimed at repelling a rebel offensive on the city of Marib.

The Houthis rarely comment on the tolls, which have exceeded 3,500 in the past weeks, according to Saudi reports.

AFP cannot independently verify the coalition’s figures.

“Eighteen military vehicles were destroyed and over 140 terrorist elements eliminated” in the latest raids, the coalition said, quoted by the Saudi state news agency SPA.

The UN last week called on “all parties to the conflict to ensure the safety and security of civilians in and around those areas where shifts in frontlines have taken place”.

The Houthis began a major push to seize Marib city in February and renewed their offensive in September.