The latest Houthi assault on Yemen's Marib governorate is threatening the lives of millions of civilians trapped inside the battle zone, aid agencies said on Thursday.
The gas-rich region is the internationally recognised government’s last stronghold in northern Yemen and hosts more than two million internally displaced people.
But the province, and its capital city, have in recent months become the focal point of the war in Yemen — a conflict which has already killed tens of thousands of civilians and pushed the country to the brink of famine.
“Marib city hosts more than two million internally displaced people [IDPs] — almost 70 per cent of the IDPs in Yemen,” said Basheer Omar, a representative for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Yemen.
“If the conflict reaches the city, then it would be a disaster for them,” he told The National. “They will be faced with very difficult choices”.
For years, the ICRC has been pushing Yemen’s warring sides to give civilians safe passage out of the conflict zones and have demanded that those who remain be “respected and not attacked,” he said.
“Every party has an obligation to treat the wounded and to search for and recover the bodies of people who have been killed during the fighting — irrespective of which side they belong to,” Mr Omar said.
Lack of food
Those who have arrived in Marib city since fighting intensified in the province face severe food shortages, he said, but international agencies are trying their best to meet civilians' needs.
The safety and protection of civilians in Marib is the Norwegian Refugee Council’s immediate concern, agency spokesman Karl Schembri told The National.
“In just the first six months of this year, more civilians there were killed or wounded than in the previous two years combined,” he said, and added that the council can only reach a small portion of those in need.
“We call on all parties to ensure that we can reach the most vulnerable in Marib and to spare civilians,” Mr Schembri said.
Many of those that have fled to Marib over the years live in overcrowded areas that are now surrounded by the fighting, cut off from essential services and humanitarian aid, he said.
“Those that have fled lack some of the most basic essentials like clean water, latrines, power and health facilities. Families, including children, are sleeping out in the open,” he said.
Despite UN and US calls for peace, no ceasefire agreement has been struck. International aid agencies are urging the warring sides to reach a settlement.
“We call on all parties to ensure that we can reach the most vulnerable in Marib and to spare civilians,” Mr Schembri said.
For the ICRC, the most important thing is to ensure that both sides reach a political solution so that civilians are able to live a dignified life, Mr Omar said.
“Without a solution, the suffering of Yemeni people will continue for a long time.”
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
Results
2pm: Al Sahel Contracting Company – Maiden (PA) Dh50,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: AF Mutakafel, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
2.30pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – Maiden (TB) Dh60,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: El Baareq, Antonio Fresu, Rashed Bouresly
3pm: Shadwell – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
3.30pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh84,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Alkaraama, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
4pm: Keeneland – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Lady Snazz, Saif Al Balushi, Bhupat Seemar
4.30pm: Hive – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
5pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – (TB) Handicap Dh64,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
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What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Remaining fixtures
Third-place-play-off: Portugal v Mexico, 4pm on Sunday
Final: Chile v Germany, 10pm on Sunday
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness'
Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams
Rating: 3/5
