UN Refugee Agency allocates $2M in emergency aid for Yemen’s humanitarian needs

The UN Refugee Agency has allocated $2 million in emergency funding to address humanitarian needs arising from the latest military escalation in Yemen, an official said Sunday.

UNHCR Representative in Yemen Armen Yedgarian announced the funding during a meeting in the interim capital Aden with Yemeni Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Mohammed al-Faqmi, according to the official Saba news agency.

The two sides discussed ways to strengthen coordination to meet the humanitarian needs of people displaced by the latest fighting, the agency said.

In addition to the $2 million in emergency assistance, Yedgarian said preparations were underway for the arrival of a new shipment of shelter aid.

He reaffirmed continued coordination with the Yemeni government and UN agencies operating in the country to strengthen the humanitarian response for displaced people and provide them with needed assistance.

On Saturday, Yemen's government-run Executive Unit for the Management of Displaced Persons Camps said around 147,000 people had been displaced to eight provinces from the beginning of September through Sept. 18 due to the latest military escalation.

Several fronts across Yemen have seen renewed fighting between government forces and Houthi fighters, including Taiz, Marib, Al-Jawf, Al-Bayda and Lahj.

The latest developments are part of a broader military escalation that began in early July, the most intense after years of relative calm following an April 2022 truce.

Fighting accelerated further in September, with the Houthis seizing key locations in Al Hudaydah and Taiz, including the strategic city of Mokha and Perim Island, which divides the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into two channels.

Yemen has been engulfed in conflict since the Houthi group seized the capital Sanaa and several provinces in September 2014, prompting a Saudi-led Arab coalition to intervene in March 2015 in support of the internationally recognized government.