New fighting in Yemen displaces 290,000 people, with 6,100 pregnant women at risk, UN says

At least 290,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since the country’s war re-erupted in August, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian office, OCHA. A report published on Friday warned of a dire threat to pregnant women as the new round of fighting spreads.

Among those recently displaced are 6,100 pregnant women, including 600 due to give birth within two weeks, the OCHA report said. It added that 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen face a rapidly deteriorating situation, with services disrupted and food and fuel prices rapidly rising.

The UN has sent mobile teams and midwives to displacement sites, and aid groups have been able to deliver food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash to about 249,000 people — about three in four of those displaced.

The fighting pits forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government against Houthi rebels. It has intensified particularly in Taiz governorate and in coastal areas, with thousands reported killed.

The war has also reached across the border into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said on Saturday that it had intercepted and destroyed a “hostile” drone over the Riyadh region. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki wrote on X that the relevant authorities were continuing to inspect the site, but no casualties had been reported. It was the second interception over the Riyadh region in as many days.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia said drones had been downed near Mecca, Medina and Riyadh, along with a Houthi missile fired towards the kingdom’s south. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied that the group had launched drones towards Saudi territory, calling the claims “egregious lies”. The group has repeatedly denied aiming at Islam’s two holiest cities, while claiming responsibility for attacks on the Saudi capital, airports and oil infrastructure.

The Houthis’ attack on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 10 killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, the most lethal attack on Saudi soil in more than a decade.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud attended a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, where he discussed the situation in Yemen with United States, Russian and European counterparts, according to the Saudi state news agency. On the sidelines of the meeting, Prince Faisal and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand also issued a joint condemnation of the Houthi attacks on the kingdom.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government announced on Friday that the Houthis had fired at least three ballistic missiles at the Maashiq presidential palace, the seat of government in Aden, the country’s interim capital. Missiles were also fired at Aden International Airport, which had reopened on Thursday after a brief closure for repairs following an earlier Houthi attack. Both the palace and the airport have been repeat targets of Houthi drone and missile attacks in recent weeks.

A spokesman for Yemen’s government forces, Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, said on Friday that warplanes, drones, artillery and rocket launchers had targeted Houthi command centres, troop concentrations and supply routes on fronts including Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda, and that government forces had “neutralised” about 336 Houthi fighters and commanders and destroyed or damaged 112 vehicles, weapons and other equipment “in recent hours”.

Civilian casualties are also mounting. The government-aligned Saba news agency reported that one civilian was killed and five injured, including a child, in Houthi attacks across Taiz governorate; a woman was shot dead, while the other injuries came from shelling and gunfire. The UN has verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 killed, half of whom are children.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said its field team in Taiz province recorded thousands of Houthi violations between September 1 and October 29, with at least 189 civilians killed, including 38 children and 27 women. The group also recorded 23 field executions and more than 300 abductions or enforced disappearances.

Roads closed by the fighting are blocking food, medicine, fuel and water from reaching two million people in the vicinity. Taiz city has been bitterly contested throughout Yemen’s civil war; after seizing ground to its south this month, including al-Turbah, the Houthis have tightened their grip around the city, leading to deteriorating humanitarian conditions inside it.

Yemen’s war broke out in September 2014, when Houthi forces captured the capital, Sanaa, forcing the government south. The war intensified when a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in March 2015 to support government-aligned forces. Following several truces, fighting re-erupted after Yemeni government forces targeted Sanaa International Airport, preventing a plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing. The Houthis have since launched a sweeping offensive on Yemen’s coast, giving them control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait, and Yemen’s government has announced an offensive to retake territory from the Houthis.