Hodeida (Yemen): A Huthi 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 Iran-backed insurgents on Friday took control of a large area south of Hodeida, a key Red Sea port where the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire in 2018, after loyalist forces withdrew.
The United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) said Monday that the latest developments “represent a major shift of the frontlines”.
The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement that the “redeployment and repositioning” of its troops and government forces last week was designed “to support the Yemeni government in its national battle on all fronts”.
It is a possible reference to heavy battles on the separate front for the city of Marib, the government’s last stronghold in the north.
“Some 700 families (some 4,900 people) were displaced” to Khokha, over 100 kilometres (60 miles) 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 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 Huthis.
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. AFP
