Thousands of families are displaced by flooding in Yemen

In fear of the potential arrival of a COVID-19 pandemic, in a context of violence and where a cholera outbreak is still being fought, the heavy rains across southern and eastern Yemen are now added. At least 4,625 families have lost their houses due to the floods in several areas, according to Anadolu, a Turkish news agency.

It is a new obstacle in one of the poorest nations in the region and where violence has displaced more than 40,000 people since January, and about 3.6 million fled their homes since the civil war began more than five years ago.

Yemen’s civil war erupted in 2014 as Houthi, Shiite rebels, took control of the capital of the country and largest city, Sana’a, against the government and demanding lower fuel prices. The conflict has its roots before, in the so-called “Arab Spring of 2011”, when an uprising forced Yemen’s president to hand over power to his deputy. The Houthi insurgency took advantage of the new government weakness.

International interests have contributed to maintaining a conflict that has created a severe humanitarian crisis and famine, as a US-backed Saudi-led military coalition has tried to defeat the Iranian-backed Houthi militia. Temporarily, the Saudi-led coalition declared a 2-week coronavirus ceasefire starting on April 9.