Floods in Yemen kill nearly 100, damage thousands of homes

A truck bypasses a damaged road after intense flooding caused damage to infrastructure in southwest Yemen. Eissa Ahmed/AP

Sanaa (Yemen) August 31 — Severe floods have killed at least 97 people in Yemen over the past month and deepened food shortages for millions of others already displaced by years of war, according to a United Nations body.

Deluges have impacted at least 56,000 homes across the country, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in its latest update on Friday, which added that more than 33,000 families had been affected since the monsoon season began in mid-July.

Damage caused in this round of flooding makes things worse for the 4.5 million Yemenis currently internally displaced and in urgent need of humanitarian aid, the UNHCR said.

A civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, when rebel Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government.

In the intervening years the conflict has spiraled into a wider war between a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Iran-backed Houthis, giving rise to what the UN calls “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

People traverse a road damaged in recent flooding. Yemen News Agency (SABA)

Complicating things further has been Houthi attacks on Israel over its war in Gaza, which Israel launched after Palestinian militant group Hamas’ deadly assault on October 7.

Displaced Yemenis are overwhelmingly food-insecure. According to the UN agency, 85% of the displaced families are unable to meet their daily food needs, with many cutting back on the size and frequency of meals.

In the Melhan district of the western province of Al-Mahwit alone, 33 people have been killed by intense flooding, which also damaged more than 200 houses, according to Ali al-Zikam, secretary-general of the local council, late Wednesday on Facebook.

Five cars were swept away in the floods, which left several people missing, he added.

The flooding began on Tuesday, when heavy rains inundated communities and unleashed rockslides in the area.

Yemen’s Red Crescent said Thursday that 38 people remain missing, and that the agency is actively searching for them.

“The magnitude of the disaster in Al-Mahwit is substantial,” the aid group said.