Sanaa, October 10: Shiite rebels in north Yemen on Thursday claimed control of a village on the Saudi border as fierce fighting in the mountainous region forced UN officials to abandon plans to bring in a shipment of aid.
A Zaidi rebel said his forces are holding onto Munabah village near the Saudi frontier in Saada province, at the centre of the fighting, after capturing it on Wednesday.
“We still control Munabah,” he said.
The rebels have attacked Baqam, another border village further east, Rashed Mohammed al-Alimi, deputy prime minister for defence and security, told parliament.
“The rebels were aiming to capture the Alb border post” and the government has sent extra troops to block the move, Alimi said.
Separately, fierce fighting around the provincial capital, also called Saada, left “numerous victims on both sides,” a military source said.
And rebels wounded nine civilians when they fired rockets on the strategic town of Harf Sufyan, in neighbouring Amran province to the south, tribal sources said.
UN humanitarian chief John Holmes is to visit the region on Friday to highlight the humanitarian crisis caused by eight-weeks of clashes between government troops and the Zaidis, a UN official in Sanaa said.
International organisations are increasingly concerned about the plight of civilians and their own ability to deliver aid, with some 55,000 people estimated to have been displaced.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had said on Sunday it expected to send a convoy of relief goods from Saudi Arabia within days to help around 2,000 of the civilians displaced in the fighting.
However, a UN official in Riyadh said on Thursday: “The shipment of aid for this week has been cancelled due to continuing security problems”.
In Sanaa, another UN official said: “Holmes is arriving in Sanaa tonight and from Friday he will inspect the Al-Mazraq camp at Haradh in Hajjah province,” where thousands of people have sought refuge after fleeing their homes.
Holmes, who plans to stay in Yemen until Sunday, wants to “draw the attention of the international community to the humanitarian situation and boost aid to the affected people,” the official in Sanaa said.
The International Committee for the Red Cross said in Geneva that the conflict “is increasingly putting civilian lives at risk, leaving tens of thousands without vital aid and forcing many more to flee conflict areas.
“Unless more is done to protect civilians and ensure that they can receive life-saving aid, the situation will worsen further,” the statement added.
“The situation has drastically deteriorated in recent weeks,” said Jean-Nicolas Marti, ICRC head of delegation in Yemen.
“Safety is the primary concern of those stranded … in areas where fighting is taking place. But access to food, water and health care is almost as vital, and shelter is a concern, too, as nights are becoming colder.”
The army launched “Operation Scorched Earth” on August 11 in an attempt finally to crush an uprising in which thousands of people have been killed since it first broke out in 2004.
—Agencies