Yemen: 120 people killed and hundreds displaced as a result of clashes in Taiz and Hodeidah

The Yemeni government said on Friday that violent fighting between Yemeni government forces and the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) is ongoing on several fronts in Taiz and Hodeida provinces in western Yemen, killing dozens and injuring hundreds of civilians.

For its part, Yemeni government forces said the air force had entered the fray and bombed Houthi positions for the first time on the Hays front, west of Taiz.

Agence France-Presse, citing sources on both sides, is reporting that yesterday, Thursday and Friday, more than 120 people were killed in the clashes, which they described as the most violent in years.

The agency also quoted a Yemeni military official, who requested anonymity, as saying the death toll of government forces rose to 66 yesterday, Thursday, while medical and military sources close to the Houthis said at least 62 militants were killed.

In turn, the head of Yemen’s Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alim, said: “We will not allow the Iranian regime to achieve its goal of controlling the Bab al-Mandab Strait.”

Al-Alim held the Houthis responsible for the humanitarian consequences of the ongoing escalation and violations in the country.

Violent clashes and military confrontations, which continued into the early hours of yesterday, Thursday, are concentrated on several key fronts in western Yemen, Taiz and Hodeidah provinces.

Military sources said the Houthis are trying to isolate the main coastal city of Mokha, which came under sustained attacks last August, from the rest of the government-held areas and are advancing towards the coast overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Controlling the hills and high ground overlooking the coast and ports leading to the strait would allow the Houthis to target cargo ships transiting the Red Sea.

A massive exodus from Taiz

The Yemeni government announced today, Friday, that according to preliminary statistics, 917 families were displaced as a result of the military escalation in the western Taiz province yesterday, Thursday morning.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation office in Taiz governorate, the governorate is witnessing rapid humanitarian developments as a result of renewed clashes and military escalation in the Makbana district and a number of neighboring districts, especially in the Jabal Habash district, which has led to forced displacement and displacement of the population. IDP shelter and asylum.

The statement said the displacement included areas including Yemen’s isolated areas of al-Abdallah, al-Ashmala and al-Jeb camp in Makbana district.

Given the continued escalation and violent fighting, government agencies expect the number of IDPs to rise given the possibility of new waves of IDPs.

The statement warned that displaced families will face extremely difficult humanitarian conditions amid acute shortages of shelter, emergency shelter materials, food shortages and clean drinking water.

The developments come amid an ongoing military escalation between government forces and the Houthi group in western Yemen, which has included clashes and attacks with ballistic missiles and drones.

Clashes between government forces and the Houthi group have resumed since early July in several governorates, including Marib (central) and al-Jawf (north), as well as al-Daliyah and Taiz, after a lull that lasted from April 2022 following a war that began about 12 years ago between government forces and the capital, which controls several cities. Sana’a, from September 21, 2014.