190,000 migrants in Yemen in ‘dire’ need of assistance: IOM

SANAA, Yemen (AA) – Around 190,000 migrants in war-torn Yemen are in “dire” need of assistance, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned on Saturday.

“More than 4 million people who have fled their homes in search of safety, and some 190,000 migrants from the Horn of Africa, are in dire need of assistance” IOM said in a statement.

The UN body said the eight-year conflict in Yemen has not only affected the local population, but also migrants.

“Two out of three people in Yemen rely on humanitarian aid for their survival. Eighty percent of the population live under the poverty line,” IOM said. “Among those most affected are people on the move.”

However, despite the deepening humanitarian crisis, IOM said funding for the humanitarian response has been on “a worrying decline.”

“The people of Yemen must not be forgotten,” the organization said, calling for people to donate so as to support the “vulnerable people on the move and vulnerable Yemeni host communities.”

African migrants, particularly from Ethiopia and Somalia, use Yemen as a transit point on their way to the Gulf for work.

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iran-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The conflict has created one of the world's worst man-made humanitarian crises, with 23.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and protection and more than 19 million are in danger of starvation, according to latest UN estimates.

The UK-based international humanitarian organization Oxfam has warned that bread prices in Yemen have spiked up to 35% due to the ongoing Russian war on Ukraine.

The NGO said Yemen imports 42% of its grain from Ukraine, but the Russian war on the country has disrupted the supplies of grain and cooking oil to the war-torn Arab country.

* Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara