UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher has released 9 million U.S. dollars of urgent funds to provide assistance to displaced Yemeni families and their host communities, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday.
The United Nations and its humanitarian partners continue to support displaced families and others caught up in the hostilities. But humanitarian supplies and resources are running low, said OCHA.
Humanitarian access and movement remain severely constrained due to insecurity. Movement along key routes is restricted or suspended, making it harder to reach many of those in dire need, said OCHA.
The office calls on all parties to protect civilians, respect international humanitarian law, and facilitate safe and unimpeded humanitarian access so that urgently needed assistance can reach people in need.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that escalating hostilities along Yemen's western coast have displaced more than 100,000 people inside the country and forced thousands more to seek safety across Bab al-Mandab Strait in Djibouti.
The UNHCR said that humanitarian access is a major challenge and that insecurity, damaged roads, telecommunications disruptions and movement restrictions affect operations. Damage to Al Makha port has further constrained humanitarian movement and logistics.
The agency said that fighting has uprooted families across several governorates, raising concerns about further displacement inside Yemen and additional refugee movements if hostilities intensify. Many families fled at short notice with few belongings.
"Shelter, food, clean water, health care and protection services are among the most urgent needs, as receiving communities and displacement sites become overstretched," said the UNHCR.
The agency said that over the past four days, more than 2,400 people have made the sea crossing from Yemen to Djibouti. More than 60 percent were women, children and older people.
"People are arriving after a difficult sea journey, many exhausted, distressed and carrying what little they could take with them," said Sandrine Desamours, the UNHCR representative in Djibouti. "The response is already under pressure. We urgently need more support before more families arrive and needs outpace our capacity to assist them."
The UNHCR is also monitoring the possibility of onward or parallel movements toward Somalia, where contingency planning is under way should additional arrivals materialize. The agency said it is deeply concerned about more than 65,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers inside Yemen, most from Somalia and Ethiopia, who face renewed risks. ■
