These days may not be merciful to civilians in the Marib Governorate, eastern Yemen, and for six years they have never been stable after the control of Ansar Allah (Houthis) in 2015.
Marib has been witnessing continuous battles between the internationally recognized government forces and the tribes of the people of the Marib governorate and the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) for about three consecutive weeks. This is happening in conjunction with the halt of the American support to the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and removing the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) from the list of terrorism, after it was designated in the final days of Trump's reign as a "terrorist" group.
Marib governorate has received huge numbers of displaced people from various Yemeni governorates since the beginning of 2014, as their numbers reached nearly two and a half million who represent 60% of the total displaced people in the Republic since the beginning of the conflict.
In addition, Marib city has also received thousands of displaced people from the governorate’s districts fleeing their areas which are witnessing tensions from time to time and during the outbreak of new confrontations. Moreover, the conditions of war were on their watch and the recent battles and attacks on villages and camps exacerbated the list of their tragedies so that they began to draw a map of the continuous displacement in order to rescue their lives, which became associated with the danger moving in the same direction.
These numbers continue to rise daily in light of the intensification of confrontations and the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the displacement shelter to form new waves of displacement resulted from the confrontation lines close to the camps that are surrounded by the fighting fronts from the two sides.
Recently, confrontations developed rapidly and fiercely all over the fighting fronts in Marib which made the camps for the displaced overcrowded with two and a half million people since the beginning of the war until now, facing the artillery of death.
Wadha Rabea, a community activist in Serwah, told "Khuyut": Since the beginning of the war, Serwah district has been paying the price for land and people as battles have taken place in every part of the district throughout the war period.
Wadha adds that " there is no single day passes without humanity violating the rights and peace of citizens who lost their homes and tents that shelter them. What was even worse, all basic services in Serwah were cut including water, electricity, educational and health facilities in addition to the lack of income for the IDPs fleeing from their resident governorates and the scarcity of humanitarian aids due to the poor support of international organizations operating in the governorate. Thus, if some aid comes, it is nothing but a drug compared to what the displaced have suffered and lost since the beginning of the series of displacements.
Wadha points out that the war left women and children in the open, as it is said exactly, “they sleep on the ground and covered by the sky.” What is happening now in the bombing of the camps of the displaced is a real crime.
During the past two weeks, the attacks on the camps in Sirwah included a flagrant violation of human rights, women and children who even fled escaping in the middle of the night, as the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) targeted their camps and homes, without taking into account that they were civilians thrown by the war into the open. "You can imagine the tragic situation here, the war destroyed everything, people, land, animals and everything without exception," Wadha told Khuyut.
The wave of displacement increased last week
The military escalation on the side of Serwah and Raghwan Districts and the outskirts of Bani Dabyan District of Sana’a governorate has caused a new displacement of huge numbers of displaced families in these areas, as most of the displaced families have undergone their second displacement since the beginning of the last escalation, after the grave violations which the displaced families are exposed to.
The waves of displacement started from the camps of Serwah district (Al-Zour, Al-Hayal, Al-Sawabin, Lafj Al-Malah, Wadi Al-Atif) and the outskirts of the Bani Dabyan district, in addition to internal displacement in the Raghwan district.
The number of displaced persons, from the sixth of last February to the twenty-first of February, reached 12,005 individuals, 1,517 displaced families, according to the Executive Unit for the Management of IDPs Camps in Marib.
Waiting for the mysterious fate
I spoke to a group of young men and women in the city of Ma'rib, who have been displaced with their families from different governorates at the beginning of the war, where they settled and started their lives again inside the city.
They expressed to "Khuyut" their concern about the recent military escalation on the city of Ma'rib, in particular, and that the city has been bombarded with ballistic missiles in the past few days, coinciding with the intensification of confrontations on the outskirts of Marib districts.
Jamal Ali, a displaced young man from Al-Hodeidah Governorate, tells “Khuyut”: I am concerned about the continuation of the missile shelling on the city. There is no doubt that its continuation will lead to another story of displacement. After I settled with my family in Marib, we have never forgotten the previous suffering of moving and the cost we incurred from Hodeidah to Marib, the suffering of the road and transportation, in addition to the material and moral cost, all of this will be repeated if the missile bombardment continues on the city, and we do not know how the situation will turn out for us this time.”
New anxiety
The intensification of battles in Marib between the forces of the internationally recognized government and the tribes of the sons of Marib and the Ansar Allah group (Houthis) puts the displaced in danger and fear, especially after their camps were targeted by the Ansar Allah group with artillery shelling, according to local residents.
These battles come as a renewal of public concern of Yemeni society, as Marib is the last northern governorate which is still not under the authority of Ansar Allah (Houthis), and this is what made citizens terrified by the dangerous developments that might change the balance of war.
