The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that it plans to relocate 14,000 refugees from frontlines in the southern entrance of Marib city to safer areas in Marib al Wadi.

“As frontlines approach the southern entrance of Marib, hosting sites and civilian populations located in the city's outskirts face immediate safety concerns,” the UN agency warned.

It said that on the western front, nearly 1,930 displaced families in IDP sites in Sirwah district are now five kilometers away from the ongoing clashes, with increasing concern for their safety.

“UNHCR's partner in Marib, Society for Humanitarian Solidarity (SHS), in coordination with the Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster, is currently seeking relocation plans for these households to safer areas in Marib al Wadi, should there be a sudden displacement,” it noted.

Since the beginning of the year, UNHCR said it has distributed more than $62 million in cash assistance to over 175,000 displaced Yemeni and refugee families and that a large portion of this assistance went to displaced Yemenis, four times more at risk of hunger than the average Yemeni population.

According to the latest post-distribution monitoring data, up to 91 percent of beneficiaries spent the assistance on food and over 20 percent on rent.

UNHCR said that as part of the ongoing efforts to respond to the needs of some 1,260 newly assessed families (more than 7,000 individuals), SHS provided non-food items to 585 families (3,041 individuals), and emergency shelter kits to 340 families (1,747 individuals) recently displaced from Rahba, Al-Abdiyah, Al-Jubah and Jabal-Murad districts into Marib City and Marib Al Wadi districts.

Additionally, the UN agency has provided cash assistance to over 66,500 families in Marib so far this year.

In a separate report, UNHCR revealed that food, health, and nutrition service shortage in Harf Sufyan led to a spike in malnutrition cases, with more than 160 suspected cases.

It added that the start of the winter season in Sanaa governorate has created a dire need for winter and emergency shelter kits.

The UN agency also said that government-held areas host over 60 percent of all 141,600 refugees and asylum-seekers in Yemen and that most of them live in the urban areas of Aden, Mukalla and Sayun.

-Asharq Al-Awsat

 -File photo