Displaced Yemenis affected by floods receive Saudi assistance‏‏

The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center provided quick assistance to more than 14,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Yemen’s Marib, due to floods resulting from torrential monsoon rains that hit the governorate in the past days.

Yemeni authorities issued an urgent appeal to relief organizations to intervene and provide shelter and food to the families affected by storms and torrential rains that affected the governorate, which is home to more than 60% of IDPs.

KSrelief was the first to implement an urgent intervention by providing shelter to more than 200 families, including about 14,000 individuals.

Saif Muthanna, head of the Marib branch of the Executive Unit for Internally Displaced Persons, announced that KSrelief urgently intervened in Marib by providing 1,500 food baskets, in addition to 200 tents and 200 shelter bags.

However, he stressed that this intervention is not sufficient given the size of the catastrophe.

Until Thursday morning, the Executive Unit for IDP Camps Management monitored 449 displaced families who were completely and partially affected by the floods, including 18 displaced families in Al Jufaina camp.

Member of the Presidential Leadership Council, Major General Sultan Al-Arada directed the Relief Sub-Committee in Marib and the Executive Unit for IDP Camps Management to implement quick interventions to confront the dangers of the floods that swept a number of camps and to provide relief to those affected.

Residents in Marib told Asharq Al-Awsat that the floods came largely from the western and northwestern mountain chains through al-Khashab and al-Jufina area, towards Al-Wadi district, sweeping through the camps of the displaced.

The flood defenses that were erected in the area of Al-Jufaina collapsed, the residents said.

The area holds a large camp, which is home to more than 100,000 displaced people.

Meanwhile, the director of the national program to deal with mines, Brigadier General Amin Al-Aqili, warned residents against passing on dirt roads after the floods swept away mines planted by the Houthi militias in large areas in the neighboring Al-Jawf Governorate.

In a report issued last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that people in several governorates, mainly the displaced, were affected by heavy rains and floods in June, losing their shelters, food supplies and household items.

Initial reports received from humanitarian partners and the local authorities during the month indicated that an estimated 6,800 households (approximately 41,000 people) were affected by floods in Ad Dali, Al Hodeidah, Hadramawt, Hajjah and Taiz governorates.

The Office said initial rapid assessments were conducted in some of the affected locations which were accessible and as resources allowed.

In early June, nearly 400 households in Ouda and Al Oshaira displacement sites in Al Makha district of Taiz and another two displacement sites in Al-Mukalla district of Hadramout were affected by heavy rains.

According to national NGOs that conducted initial assessments in flood-affected districts, more than 2,800 households (approximately 16,800 people) in At Taiziyah, Mawiyah, Dimnat Khdair, Maqbanah and Sami districts were affected by floods.

Also, initial assessment conducted by Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) partners said more than 2,900 displaced households across 22 sites in Abs, Aslam, Khayran Al Muharraq and Bani Qays districts of Hajjah and 238 households in 13 displacement sites in Az Zuhrah district of Hodeidah Governorate were affected.

In Ad Dali Governorate, humanitarian partners reported some 470 households in 11 sites in Ad Dali City and Qatabah District of Ad Dali Governorate were affected by floods in late June, the report noted.