YEMEN: Saudi aid route could open "next week"

Photo: Adel Yahya/IRIN

Abdulqader takes his two daughters to the family’s tent in a camp for the displaced. Families such as this are in desperate need of more assistance

SANAA, 1 October 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has received permission from Saudi Arabia to send humanitarian aid to trapped internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Yemen through its border, according to agency officials.

"We will begin our cross-border operation next week if the security situation allows," Andrew Knight, a UNHCR external relations officer, told IRIN on 30 September. "Our first convey will transport tents, blankets and mattresses for 2,000 people, and further assistance will be dispatched according to the needs and numbers of IDPs."

Naseem Ur-Rehman, chief communications and information officer at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told IRIN on 30 September that one UNICEF and three UNHCR officials had been dispatched to the border area to assess needs and the security situation.

He said UNICEF had locally stocked supplies including blankets, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, nappies and water filters for 20,000-25,000 people, "but insecurity [had] restricted our access to the displaced."

Saudi permission came 20 days after humanitarian agencies appealed for a new aid route to be opened up. The trapped IDPs fled an upsurge in fighting between government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels based in the northern governorate of Saada.

Photo: OCHA

An estimated 150,000 people are displaced in the northern Governorates of Saada, Amran, al-Jawf and Hajjah

Saudi donation

The Saudi government has agreed to give UNHCR a US$1 million for its aid operations, said Knight, who is currently on mission to Maraziq IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 250km northwest of the capital Sanaa. "We thank both Saudi and Yemeni governments for supporting our operations," he added.

The UNHCR said in a 29 September statement that it was still $2 million short of what it needed for its aid operation in the area and appealed for further donations.

Stranded

On 30 September Siyaj Organization for Childhood Protection (SOCP) appealed to the Yemeni and Saudi governments to help save the lives of 120 children stranded with their families in the Elb area near the Saudi border since mid-September.

There was evidence of other groups of IDPs near the border.

"Our volunteer workers in Baqim District, north of Saada, confirmed that more than 70 trapped families are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance," said SOCP Chairman Ahmad al-Qurashi. "Yemen should coordinate with the Saudi government to open the border to allow trapped IDPs to find sanctuary with Saudi relatives in the kingdom's southern region."

The government-rebel clashes in the region first started in 2004 and have left 150,000 displaced, according to UN estimates.

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