AL-MUKALLA: Four displaced people were killed and many others injured on Sunday in Yemen’s central province of Marib when torrential rains and strong winds hit their tents.
With these four victims, the death toll in Yemen reported by the UN since the end of July rises to 61.
The government’s internationally recognized executive unit for Marib refugee camps told Arab News about the deaths, injuries and chaos caused by the weather conditions.
Residents tweeted images and videos of destroyed homes, makeshift shelters and electricity towers in Jaw Al-Naseem camp in Marib, where parts of the camp were nearly flattened by strong winds.
Marib has welcomed more than two million displaced people fleeing war and Houthi brutality in their areas.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Sunday that heavy rains and floods have hit 34,260 homes in Yemen, causing extensive damage and killing 57 people and injuring 16; the number is expected to rise.
According to the UN humanitarian agency’s update on the flash floods in Yemen, between 28 July and 9 August, 31 people were killed and 6,042 families were affected in Yemen’s western province of Hodeidah, 2,753 families were affected in the northern province of Hajjah, and two deaths and 3,451 families were affected were reported in the northern province of Saada. In Taiz, a southern province, 15 people were killed and 6,494 families were affected.
Last week, at least 30 people died and others were left homeless when heavy rains and catastrophic floods devastated Hodeidah, destroying homes, farmland and other property.
Yemen's National Meteorological Center reiterated its warnings Sunday to Yemenis across the country not to enter or stay in waterways, predicting heavy rains, flooding and strong winds in Yemen's highlands and western and southern regions.
At the same time, the Yemeni government on Sunday reiterated its call to the international community to provide assistance to the thousands of flood victims in the country, unblock highways and restore services in four Yemeni provinces.
Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Governing Council, said during a meeting with Steven H. Fagin, US Ambassador to Yemen, that the country needs immediate humanitarian aid to address the damage caused by floods and raids in the provinces of Hajjah, Hodeidah, Taiz and Marib.
Meanwhile, local tribesmen have persuaded the Houthis to end their siege and halt their invasion of a village in Al-Bayda province, after residents agreed to hand over seven people suspected of killing local Houthi operatives.
In the previous days, the Houthis had surrounded Hamat Sarar, in the Walad Rabi area of Al-Bayda, and threatened to attack it with tanks, after accusing locals of hiding four people suspected of killing four members of the militant group.
However, residents said the Houthis were killed during clashes with villagers, when fighters killed a villager at a Houthi-manned checkpoint.
According to Nasser Ali Al-Sanae, a Yemeni activist from Al-Bayda, the villagers decided to turn some of their inhabitants over to tribal mediation and organize a modest protest to show their support for the Houthis, in exchange for the latter's cessation of the assault on the village.
“People knew that the Houthi retaliation would be terrible, so they decided to organize the rally and hand over some villagers to stop the bloodshed,” Al-Sanae said.
This came as Yemeni government authorities, as well as local and international NGOs, had been raising the alarm that if the Houthis attacked the village, there would be “carnage,” as Yemeni militia had assembled soldiers and tanks and flown drones above it in preparation for the attack.
“SAM Organization calls on the Houthi group to immediately lift the siege of Hamat Sarar and to cease the policies of intimidation and repression it has practiced against civilians in the areas it controls over the past decade,” the Geneva-based rights and freedoms organization SAM said in a statement on Sunday.
