Red Cross: Humanitarian situation in Yemen worse than ever - Summary

Geneva - The humanitarian situation in north Yemen has deteriorated to the worst level ever amid a raging conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Monday. "The humanitarian situation in the north of Yemen is now worse than ever before," the organization said in a statement.

"The danger we see is that if more attention is not given to the conflict in the north, the situation will deteriorate to a point where development aid won't make sense anymore," Dominik Stillhart, a senior ICRC official told reporters in Geneva.

He was speaking ahead of an international conference on Yemen in London later this week, with security and poverty reduction in the spotlight.

"As much of the focus is security related, one should not forget the conflict up in the north, (ongoing) since 2004, which is in humanitarian terms, the number one problem of Yemen today," Stillhart said.

"What is haunting people in the north of Yemen... they are much more concerned by the conflict between the government and the Houthi rebels that what will be discussed at the London conference," the ICRC official said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the conference on Yemen after an attempted Christmas Day bombing of an airliner over the United States by a Nigerian man.

The suspect was believed to have been operating on the orders of the Yemen branch of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, which has bases in the south of the poor Gulf country.

However, fighting between rebels and government forces in the north has been ongoing since 2004, with occasional lulls in combat. The violence flared up again late last year, spilling over into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh launched cross border attacks against the Shiite Houthi rebels in November, as the conflict spread to more areas geographically and affected more people.

On Monday, rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, announced a unilateral ceasefire with Saudi and said his fighters would withdraw from positions within the kingdom.

Last week, Saudi Deputy Minister of Defense Prince Khaled bin Sultan said the territory around the border area was stable and secure, while announcing plans to build a military base in that area.

At least 150,000 people are believed to have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the conflict in the north. Many more remain civilians were behind the frontlines, with humanitarian aid agencies unable to reach them.

According to the Red Cross, civilians "are the primary victims of the conflict."

Yemen hosts some 155,000 refugees from the Horn of Africa, mostly people who have fled Somalia, which has been locked in a brutal civil war for most of the last two decades.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305667,red-cross-humanitarian-situation-in-yemen-worse-than-ever--summary.html.