Sanaa – About 350,000 people still displaced by war in northern Yemen, or 100,000 of the estimated number of United Nations before the February ceasefire between the government and the rebel Shia, a minister said Thursday. “The last thing we have is 350,000 refugees, or about 50,000 families, which is listed,” said Ahmed al-Kahlani, ministers of state who deal with the problem of refugees in the country, at a press conference in Sanaa, as quoted by AFP. United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says some 250,000 people displaced during the six-round war between the army and Shia rebels in the north. The last round ended on February 12 after six months of fighting.
Kahlani said the end of the war had made tens of thousands of people can come and register at the ministry. He added that the UN World Food Programme (WFP) have difficulty to provide assistance to the penungsi in poor areas, and only five to 10 percent of them have returned home.
“We can not force refugees to return home because we know their villages were destroyed, especially those in border lines with the (Arabic) Arabia where a number of villages were destroyed completely,” he said. Deputy UNHCR in Yemen, Claire Bouregois, told the same press conference, the situation in the rebel region in Saada “fragile” despite a ceasefire has been enforced.
A press conference was also attended by foreign envoys of Saudi Arabia, Zouheir Idrissi, which means the country’s promising aid to refugees in northern Yemen.
Northern rebels and the government has approved a ceasefire to end the war in the region. Several previous truce failed to be enforced.
The truce which came into force Friday (12 / 2) it is the government’s latest effort to end the rebellion in the north that has killed thousands of people and caused 250,000 people to flee.
Zaidi or Houthi rebel group, the name of their deceased leader, based in the mountains on the border of Saudi Arabia, where they engaged in battle with Yemeni and Saudi forces.
Government forces engaged in sporadic battles with Shiite groups since 2004.
Violence in southern Yemen has also increased in recent time was when separatist protesting against the administration of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who clashed with security forces killed three policemen and five protestors.
Tensions rose in southern Yemen after a protester was shot dead the police on February 13. The incident sparked riots in which the separatists set fire to shops owned by people north and attempted to blockade a main road. Authorities conduct security operations and arrested about 180 people in the southern provinces. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen has urged people not to listen to calls for secession, which he said the same as treason.
North Yemen and South Yemen formally united to form the Republic of Yemen in 1990 but many in the southern region, which is where most of the oil in Yemen, said that the unification of the north uses it to control the natural resources and their discriminating.
Western countries and Saudi Arabia, Yemen neighbors, worried that the country will fail and Al-Qaeda used the turmoil to strengthen their grip on the impoverished Arab country and turn it into a place to launch further attacks.
Yemen into the world spotlight when the regional wing of Al-Qaeda of masterminding a bomb attack AQAP states fail against U.S. passenger plane on Christmas Day.
AQAP declared in late December, they gave Nigerians suspect “means that technically sophisticated” and told Americans that more attacks would be carried out. Analysts fear that Yemen will collapse under Shia rebellion in the northern region, the separatist movement in the southern region and the attacks of Al-Qaeda. Poor country that borders Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporting country.
Sanaa said that Yemeni forces kill dozens of al-Qaeda members in two attacks in December. British Embassy in Sanaa also become targets of suicide attacks planned Al-Qaeda Yemeni security forces foiled in mid-December. An Al Qaeda cell that was destroyed in Arhab, 35 kilometers north of the Yemeni capital, “aims to infiltrate and blow up targets including the British Embassy, government buildings and foreign interests”, according to a statement posted on the site 26Sep.net letter news of the defense ministry. Besides the rebellion, Yemen was hit by kidnappings of foreigners in recent years.(AFP)
Santosamaru 