YEMEN: UNHCR launches cross-border aid operation

Photo: Adel Yahya/IRIN

Aid agencies face difficulties in delivering essential relief items to IDPs due to a lack of access (file photo)

SANAA, 12 October 2009 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has launched a cross-border aid operation through Saudi Arabia to meet the urgent needs of internally displaced persons (IDPs) trapped in and around Saada city in northern Yemen, according to UN officials.

"The first UNHCR convoy is on the way with essential emergency items to thousands of trapped IDPs, who remained inaccessible for the past two months as a result of escalating clashes between the government troops and Houthi-led Shia rebels," said UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes at a press conference on 11 October in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Holmes has ended a three-day mission to Yemen during which he visited the Mazrak IDP camp in Hajja Governorate, some 300km west of Sanaa.

The cross-border operation was to start on 10 October, but was postponed until 11 October due to technical issues related to paperwork, said Andrew Knight, an external relations officer with UNHCR in Yemen.

"The first batch of emergency items includes mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits and kitchen sets for 2,000 people," he told IRIN. "The items will be distributed to trapped IDPs through the Saada-based NGO Al-Amal Society, our implementing partner."

In Baqim and other northern areas near the Saudi border, 15,000-30,000 IDPs have been inaccessible to aid workers for the past two months, according to UNHCR.

"In cooperation with our local partner Yemeni Red Crescent Society, we managed to provide tents for over 1,000 IDPs in Baqim area over the past two days," Rabab al-Rifai, a spokeswoman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told IRIN.

"We are in the process of sending more tents to cover the needs of more than 10,000 IDPs in the Baqim area," al-Rifai said.

Security

Efforts will be made to ensure the safety of aid corridors, according to Holmes.

"We want to convince Houthi fighters that access to IDPs in various sanctuary areas is our major concern at the moment," he said. "Aid workers need safe corridors to help those trapped IDPs."

Holmes urged the warring parties to ensure protection of civilians, as stipulated by international humanitarian law.

Jan Nicola Marti, head of ICRC Yemen, also stressed the importance of security for aid workers and beneficiaries.

"Many citizens in the war-ravaged governorate told us their homes were damaged or completely destroyed in the sixth bout of clashes that broke out on 12 August. They lost their jobs, assets and other livelihood sources, and therefore can't afford to buy basic foodstuffs that are either unavailable or extremely expensive," Marti said.

In the latest round of fighting between government troops and Houthi rebels, UNHCR field staff have registered up to 36,216 IDPs in three governorates (Saada, Hajjah and Amran), while the total number of displaced persons since 2004 stands at about 150,000, including those living with host families or those still inaccessible.

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