Displacement in Yemen: 290,000 fled since August

At least 290,000 people in Yemen have been forced from their homes since fighting resumed in August, according to the United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA. Among them are 6,100 pregnant women, with 600 due to give birth within two weeks. The UN has deployed mobile teams and midwives to displacement sites, and aid groups have reached about 249,000 people, roughly three out of every four displaced, with food, hygiene supplies and emergency cash.

Fighting between the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels has concentrated in Taiz governorate and along the coast. The government's spokesman for its forces, Majed Abdullah al-Nuzaili, said on Friday that government forces had neutralized about 336 Houthi fighters and commanders and destroyed or damaged 112 vehicles, weapons and other equipment over recent hours. Warplanes, drones, artillery and rocket launchers struck Houthi command centers, troop concentrations and supply routes on fronts including Taiz, Marib, al-Jawf and al-Bayda.

The conflict has also reached across the border into Saudi Arabia. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a hostile drone over the Riyadh region on Saturday, the second interception over that area in as many days, and reported no casualties. The previous day, Saudi Arabia said it had downed drones near Mecca, Medina and Riyadh, along with a Houthi missile aimed at the kingdom's south. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied launching drones at Saudi territory, calling the claims egregious lies.

In Aden, the interim capital, Yemen's government said the Houthis fired at least three ballistic missiles at the Maashiq presidential palace on Friday, along with missiles at Aden International airport. The airport had reopened Thursday after repairs from an earlier Houthi strike. The government cabinet called the airport strike a direct attack on the interest of citizens and accused the group of seeking to disrupt legitimate institutions by striking the palace.

The United Nations has verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 people killed, half of them children. The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said its field team in Taiz province recorded at least 189 civilians killed between September 1 and October 29, including 38 children and 27 women, along with 23 field executions and more than 300 abductions or enforced disappearances. Roads closed by fighting have blocked food, medicine, fuel and water to two million people in the vicinity.

Yemen's war began in September 2014, when Houthi forces took the capital Sanaa and pushed the government south. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015 to back government-aligned forces. After several truces, fighting resumed after government forces targeted Sanaa International airport, preventing a plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing. The Houthis then launched an offensive along Yemen's coast and gained control of the Bab al-Mandeb strait, and Yemen's government has announced an offensive to retake territory.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed Yemen at a G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in Atlanta on Saturday with counterparts from the United States, Russia and Europe, according to the Saudi state news agency. Prince Faisal and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand also issued a joint condemnation of the Houthi attacks on the kingdom on the sidelines of the meeting.