UN reports surge in attacks on Yemen displacement camps and health facilities

Violence in Yemen has escalated sharply, with Saudi-backed government troops and Iran-aligned Houthis clashing along old front lines. UN agencies reported that displacement camps and health centres have come under fire, prompting a humanitarian crisis affecting more than 130,000 people, some of whom are fleeing across the Red Sea to Africa. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk recorded three Houthi attacks on IDP sites in August and September, resulting in dozens of injuries and the deaths of five children.

The World Health Organization said health facilities were directly targeted, and an ambulance driver and a medic were killed in Lahj on September 18. Since August, Turk's office has logged 32 civilian deaths, including 15 children and three women, and 125 people injured or killed in the latest flare-up, a figure likely under-reported. Aid groups are scrambling to meet rising needs as half of Yemen’s population faces acute food insecurity.