TAIZ, Yemen: The toll from days of fighting between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in southwest Yemen climbed past 300 on Sunday, as hundreds of families fled their homes to escape the violence. Two military officials with the Saudi-backed government forces said four Houthi military sources confirmed 57 rebel fighters were killed in the same period. The two sides have been fighting for days over control of a gateway to the Red Sea, in the deadliest flare-up in the Arabian Peninsula's southernmost country since a 2022 ceasefire collapsed in July.
Families fleeing fighting in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi in Taiz governorate in Yemen's southwest took refuge at Al-Bareen camp for the internally displaced on Saturday. On Sunday, "The shooting came at us from above and from below," said Rawdhah Hasan, a woman displaced from Maqbanah. "They surrounded us from every direction, and we fled with our children without even putting on our shoes," she added.
The Houthis launched an offensive on Thursday aiming to cut off the government-held port city of Mokha, under fire for weeks, and advance towards areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Nimah Saif, another woman displaced from the Jabal Habashi district, said that "some people were injured and others were killed. We saw them lying on the ground, but we could not help anyone." "Now we are stranded here, hungry, with nothing to eat," she added.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that an estimated 1,790 households had been displaced following intense shelling and clashes in Maqbanah and Jabal Habashi districts. A military official with the internationally recognised government based in Aden said fighting had subsided in the early hours of Sunday morning.