UNITED NATIONS — More than 200,000 people have been displaced in northern Yemen by the conflict between the government troops and Al Houti forces since it began in 2004, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday.
With the “latest influx” entering its sixth month, the shelter capacity at internally displaced people (IDP) camps has become strained and aid resources depleted, the spokesman for the UN secretary-general, Martin Nesirky, told reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York.
In a statement released Tuesday, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said that “there is no lull in the fierce fighting” as thousands of civilians continue to flee to neighboring provinces.
Overcrowding at the IDP camp has caused great concern, where for example, Al Mazrak 1 camp in the Hajjah province has now over 21,000 people which doubles its original capacity, read the UNHCR statement.
Another great concern has been the number of IDPS outside the camps where “huge makeshift sites along the roads” are close to the Al Mazrak camps, the statement read.
When asked at the news briefing here Tuesday if the UN would try and resolve Yemen’s problems politically, Nesirky indicated that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be taking part in an international conference in London later this month to deal with the issue of Yemen where counter-terrorism and radicalization in that country will be discussed.
Yemen said on Tuesday that the international conference will not tackle Yemen’s internal affairs. “The Yemeni government will not accept anything in the London government that will harm its sovereignty or lead to interference in its internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Abdullah al-Kurbi was quoted by official Saba news agency as saying.
