More than 290,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since the conflict flared again in August, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA. The agency also warned that pregnant women are facing grave dangers as the violence spreads.
Clashes between forces loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognised government and Houthi rebels have grown more intense, particularly in Taiz governorate and along the coast. Thousands of people have reportedly been killed.
Displacement and growing risks for pregnant women
An OCHA report published on Friday said 65,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Yemen are living through a fast-worsening crisis. Basic services have been disrupted, and the cost of food and fuel is climbing quickly.
Among the recently displaced are 6,100 pregnant women, and 600 of them are expected to give birth within the next two weeks. The UN has deployed mobile teams and midwives to displacement sites to support them.
Aid groups have managed to deliver food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash to roughly 249,000 people, which the report put at about three in four of those displaced.
Attacks reach Saudi Arabia and Riyadh
The fighting has spread across the border into Saudi Arabia. On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed a “hostile” drone over the Riyadh region, though no casualties were reported. It was the second interception over the area in two days.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in a post on X that the relevant authorities were still examining the site. On Friday, Saudi Arabia said drones had been shot down near Mecca, Medina and Riyadh, and that a Houthi missile had been fired toward the south of the kingdom.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree rejected the claim that the group had sent drones toward Saudi territory, describing the accusations as “egregious lies”. The group has repeatedly said it does not target Islam’s two holiest cities, while it has claimed responsibility for attacks on the Saudi capital, airports and oil facilities.
The Houthis’ strike on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport on October 10 killed at least 13 people and wounded more than 300, according to reports cited in the source. It remains the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in more than a decade.
On Saturday, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud attended a G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. He discussed Yemen with counterparts from the United States, Russia and Europe, according to the Saudi state news agency. On the sidelines, he and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand jointly condemned the Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
Missiles fired at Aden palace and airport
Yemen’s government said on Friday that the Houthis had fired at least three ballistic missiles at the Maashiq presidential palace, the seat of government in Aden, which serves as the interim capital. The group also targeted Aden International Airport, which had reopened on Thursday after a short closure for repairs following an earlier Houthi attack.
Both sites have been hit repeatedly by Houthi drones and missiles in recent weeks. The cabinet of the internationally recognised government condemned the strikes, calling the airport attack “a direct attack on the interest of citizens” and accusing the group of trying to disrupt “legitimate institutions” by hitting the palace.
Government forces spokesman Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili said on Friday that troops had “neutralised” about 336 Houthi fighters and commanders in recent hours. He added that 112 vehicles, weapons and other equipment had been destroyed or damaged. Warplanes, drones, artillery and rocket launchers, he said, struck command centres, troop concentrations and supply routes on fronts including Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda.
Civilian casualties and siege-like conditions in Taiz
According to the government-aligned Saba news agency, one civilian was killed and five were injured, including a child, in Houthi attacks across Taiz governorate. The agency said a woman was shot dead, while the injuries were caused by shelling and gunfire.
The UN has verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 deaths, and half of those killed are children. The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said its field team in Taiz province recorded thousands of Houthi violations between September 1 and October 29. The network said at least 189 civilians were killed in that period, among them 38 children and 27 women.
The same network said it documented 23 field executions and more than 300 abductions or enforced disappearances. Fighting has also closed roads, cutting off food, medicine, fuel and water for two million people in the surrounding area.
Taiz city has long been a bitterly contested place during Yemen’s civil war. After the Houthis seized ground to its south this month, including al-Turbah, they tightened their hold around the city, and humanitarian conditions inside it have deteriorated. The war began in September 2014, when Houthi forces captured the capital Sanaa, and it intensified in March 2015 after a Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened to back government-aligned forces.
