UN: More than 100,000 flee fighting in Yemen

GENEVA: Fighting between Iran-backed Houthis and government forces in Yemen has displaced more than 100,000 people inside the country, while thousands more have fled abroad, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Tens of thousands have taken flight in the wake of a week-long Houthi offensive that culminated in the group capturing the remainder of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and cementing their hold on the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait, which has become vital as the wider US-Iran war chokes the Strait of Hormuz.

The UN refugee agency warned in a statement that “rapidly escalating hostilities along Yemen’s western coast have displaced more than 100,000 people inside the country and forced thousands more to seek safety” in Djibouti.

The fighting had uprooted families across a wide area, “raising concerns about further displacement inside Yemen and additional refugee movements if hostilities intensify,” it said.