Oxfam said in a statement that “exactly one year after the escalation of clashes to gain back the rich Yemeni governorate of Marib, the humanitarian situation in the area is disastrous. At least 1 million have been displaced while clashes are not stopping”.
Faraan: The organization said in the statement that the “escalation of the conflict, since last February, has already forced over 100,000 people to abandon their homes, to seek refuge from attacks that are continuing to hit civilian targets: 43 in January alone, over one-fifth of total attacks in the last year”.
Oxfam has launched once again an urgent appeal to the international community to stop a massacre that doesn’t appear to end, putting pressure on the sides in conflict for an immediate ceasefire and reopening a dialogue that brings long-lasting peace. “What is occurring in Marib is a picture of horror and suffering that the entire Yemeni population has been experiencing for seven years”, said Paolo Pezzati, policy advisor for humanitarian emergencies of Oxfam Italia. “Civilian victims – over 18,000 between deaths and injuries – are only the collateral damage of the war, which violates each rule of international law, condemning the population to experience a nightmare of bombs and missiles fired via land”.
Pezzati added that “over the past few weeks children who were guarding animals or collecting wood were killed”.
Oxfam said that, at the moment, the governorate of Marib has between 120 and 150 informal and official camps, where nearly 2 million refugees find shelter (according to estimates by local authorities). Men, women and children have already often fled five or six times from places where they had settled.
