SITUATION OVERVIEW

With the conflict in Yemen in its sixth year, fighting again intensified in Marib governorate over the past month, with nearly 4,000 households displaced towards Marib city in September alone (see IOM’s Marib Response Update for more information). As one of the governorates with relative stability from the beginning of the conflict in 2015, Marib has seen major shifts in frontlines in 2020, with an estimated 15,000 individuals displaced to or within Marib since January. If hostilities continue, with no significant advances on either side, humanitarian partners have estimated that 3,500 households in locations close to the frontlines could be displaced towards Sirwah, Marib City and Marib Al Wadi. A worst-case scenario sees that between 34,000 – 55,000 households may be displaced towards Marib Al Wadi and into Hadramaut – a governorate with a vast desert and extremely limited humanitarian services available which would require a largescale humanitarian response1 . Marib requires an increased humanitarian presence in relation to the estimated 15 partners currently active in the governorate responding to the displacement crisis, most of which are national NGOs with limited human and financial resources.

Official COVID-19 case numbers remain low in Yemen with only 2,035 confirmed as of 30 September, in part due to the lack of testing capacity coupled with people’s resistance to seek out health care once falling ill. IOM Yemen procured six GeneXpert machines, a test similar to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), in order to increase testing capacity in underserved locations. The mission is negotiating with the Supply Chain Consortia in Geneva to prioritise Yemen and provide testing cartridges to IOM in order to effectively scale up capacities in the country (see IOM Yemen’s COVID-19 Update for further information). New displacements will only put vulnerable populations at further risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19 as it is extremely difficult for IDPs to practice isolation or take quarantine measures.

With COVID-19 movement restrictions still in place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Ethiopia and Somalia, thousands of migrants remain stranded throughout Yemen, with at least 5,000 migrants stranded in Aden, 4,000 in Marib, as well as thousands reportedly stranded at the border with KSA. Furthermore, it is estimated that thousands of migrants are held in some form of detention with reports that a number of migrant detention sites in northern governorates are not providing minimum standards of living and support. Migrants previously held in detention in the north are increasingly reporting forced movements from northern governorates across frontlines to the south or deserted areas in Al Jawf and Marib governorates where basic services are limited. IOM and partners estimate up to 4,800 migrants have been forcibly relocated since early 2020, with many movements justified as COVID-19 prevention measures as migrants are stigmatized as carriers of disease and their presence is seen as a national security issues by authorities. Given the restrictions on freedom of movements in Yemen and at the KSA border, a number of migrants have started to return on their own, making the unsafe journey back to the Horn of Africa through Djibouti – further putting their lives at risk.

Access constraints continue to be faced by the humanitarian community across Yemen, but are particularly restrictive in northern governorates. For the month of September, the airport in Sana’a was closed preventing humanitarian staff and supplies, including much needed COVID-19 and health supplies, from arriving in the country. IOM’s interventions in northern governorates have been severely impacted by interference in beneficiary selection, logistics and procurement processes, as well as increased movement restrictions. While the operational space in the south is notably more open, insecurity along frontlines impacts service delivery and authorities in the south have increasingly imposed measures in line with those in northern governorates.