Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ envoy to Yemen, has said that the country is at a crossroads, as tens of thousands of people flee amid the rising violence.
Earlier this month, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the strategic city Hazm in the country’s north, which is the capital of the oil-rich Jawf region, that has been mostly controlled by the Houthis.
“Yemen is, in my view, at a critical juncture: we will either silence the guns and resume the political process, or we will slip back into large-scale conflict”, Griffiths told reporters during a visit to Marib province. He added: “Fighting needs to stop now. Military adventurism and the quest for territorial gains are futile. They will only drag Yemen to many more years of conflict”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the fighting in Jawf has displaced tens of thousands of people to Marib province: “The ICRC and the Yemen Red Crescent Society have helped around 70,000 people, or 10,000 families, by providing food, tents, blankets, jerrycans, basins and hygiene kits,” the agency said, adding that the increased clashes have “hampered efforts to help patients and those in need”.
Yemen has been torn by conflict since 2014, when Houthi rebels seized the capital and ousted the government of president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Over 10,000 people were killed in the war and more than 3 million were displaced since the beginning of the war.
UN warns of critical phase in Yemen civil war
EPA-EFE/NAJEEB ALMAHBOOBI
Explosives experts collect mines and explosives allegedly planted by the Houthi rebels, at a position in the southwestern city of Mocha, Yemen, 20 February 2020. According to reports, a Saudi-backed project for landmines clearance in Yemen has managed to clear a total of 123,000 land mines and explosives allegedly planted by the Houthi rebels during the ongoing fighting between the Saudi-backed government forces and the Houthis across Yemen.
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