The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is working to provide shelter for hundreds of families displaced after recent fighting between government forces and Shia rebels in the northern province of Saada.
Many of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) had their homes destroyed or damaged in the clashes.
Gro Anna Persheim, a UNHCR protection officer, told IRIN 400 semi-permanent shelters would be built in four areas in the province. Each shelter would house 100 families (about 700 people).
"The project will be implemented in four phases, each delivering 100 shelters," she said, adding that the shelters would be allocated to the most vulnerable families.
According to Persheim, preparatory work started in early March 2008 and assessments would go on until June. She hoped some construction work might start at the end of April.
The first housing unit will be built near Saada city, but sites for the other three have not yet been identified. "We are working with the local councils and sheikhs [village leaders] to select villages and identify areas for building the shelters," Persheim said.
Persheim said the rate of displacement had decreased since the recent return of the Qatari mediation team, but she did not have accurate figures. “We do not have access to all affected areas,” she said.
She also said some IDPs lived well, rented houses, had access to health services and sent their children to school in Saada city. However, in the villages there were no schools, and some villagers had lost their harvests, and there was no means for them to earn a living in Saada city.
The UNHCR has been distributing non-food items (tents, mattresses, kitchen utensils and blankets) to hundreds of IDPs in Saada Province since December 2007. It has also been supporting the Yemeni Red Crescent Association in running three camps for IDPs in Saada city and others outside the city.
Clashes between the rebels, led by Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, and government forces stopped after a new Qatari-brokered peace agreement was signed on 1 February 2008, but reconstruction work in the war-affected areas has yet to start.
maj/ar/cb
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
