Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) warned that the numbers of victims of the ongoing war in Yemen is increasing due to the humanitarian crisis and the poor living conditions including the lack of heating in the freezing weather.
On Sunday, December 12, three children died due to severe cold in the camps for the displaced in the Marib Governorate, which represents the largest shelter for the displaced in Yemen.
According to the Executive Unit for the Management of IDPs Camps in Marib the death of the three children was due to the cold weather adding that “the camps for the displaced lack the most basic and basic health services, amid the absence of the organisations’ role in providing cold prevention tools for children, women and the elderly,” without details.
It is worth noting that in mid-November, the Undersecretary of Marib Governorate, Abd Rabbo Miftah, announced that “there are thousands of families who were recently abandoned by the Houthi militia from the southern districts of Ma’rib, still living in the open and lacking the most basic elements of a decent human life.”
On November 24, the United Nations International Organization for Migration announced that the 137 displacement sites in Marib had witnessed a significant increase in the number of new arrivals since September 2021.
The UN also stated that Marib alone contains more than one million displaced people, as the largest concentration of displaced people in the country, while the government authorities estimate that the number of displaced people in the governorate exceeded 2 million, making up more than half of Yemen’s 4 million displaced people.
Since last February, the Houthis have doubled their attacks in Marib to control it, for being the most important stronghold of the government and the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence, as well as being a source of oil and gas, where the Marib gas station supplied most of the provinces with electricity before the war.
Yemen has been witnessing a continuous war for nearly 7 years between the pro-government forces backed by an Arab military alliance led by Saudi Arabia, and the Iranian-backed Houthis, who have controlled several governorates, including the capital, Sanaa, since September 2014.
AOHR UK calls on the United Nations to intervene and provide the displaced Yemenis with adequate housing and to take serious action against the war that was waged by the Saudi-led coalition with the Houthis and claimed the lives of innocent people and children and caused the worst humanitarian crisis in modern history.
