SHAFAQNA- While over five years of conflict have left thousands of civilians dead and 3.65 million internally displaced, thousands of Yemeni have been left homeless following torrential rain and flash flooding.
Heavy rainfall and storms have hit various Yemeni northern and southeastern provinces, causing serious damage to the civilians’ properties during the past days, according to xinhuanet. For the second consecutive week, heavy rains triggered flash floods that washed away houses, farms, roads and electricity and water lines in the provinces of Marib, Dhale, Abyan, Hadramout, Ibb and Hajjah.
More than 2,600 families in Marib, Hajjah, Abyan and Dhale have been left without shelter after rains and floods washed away their tents and straw houses, Arabnews reported. The severe weather prevented medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic from reaching health facilities, testing centers and patients. In the central city of Marib that hosts hundreds of thousands of people who fled fighting in their home provinces, flash floods filled up the Marib dam reservoirs.
1,340 families were affected after floods inundated their tents. The intensity of floods stoked fears about a possible dam rupture that could destroy hundreds of houses and farms. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Yemen said flooding in the northern province of Hajjah and the western province of Hodeidah had washed away the homes and farms of thousands of families.
Nearly half of Yemen’s over 30 million people need immediate assistance to sustain or save their lives. The World Food Programme says that despite ongoing humanitarian assistance, at least 15.9 million people wake up hungry every day, AA told. It is estimated that in the absence of food assistance, this number would rise to 20 million.