UN Alert: Yemen to Observe Downpours, Floods in Coming Week

Yemenis ride motorcycles through a flooded street following heavy rain in Sanaa, Yemen (AFP)
Yemenis ride motorcycles through a flooded street following heavy rain in Sanaa, Yemen (AFP)
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UN Alert: Yemen to Observe Downpours, Floods in Coming Week

Yemenis ride motorcycles through a flooded street following heavy rain in Sanaa, Yemen (AFP)
Yemenis ride motorcycles through a flooded street following heavy rain in Sanaa, Yemen (AFP)

Much of Yemen’s Highlands should brace for deadlier downpours and floods in the coming week, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said in a agrometeorological early warning bulletin it released this week.

FAO also said the return of the Saif rainy season is marked by an increase of precipitation across the country.

Forecast until the end of April presents an increase of rainfall with a risk of major flooding continuation and expansion across other governorates in the country, the UN agency said.

It then warned that the central highlands will observe heavy rains and floods from the beginning of next week until April 10.

Also, the increase of precipitation from the preceding months is likely to be leading to sporadic occurrence of flood that is expected to spread around the most flood prone areas, located at the foot of steep slopes, and along the main valleys, such as Rimah, Zabid, Maur, and Bana in Hodeidah.

A peak of about 100 to 150 mm of rainfall will be observed in Ibb, Dhamar, Amran and Sanaa governorates.

FAO said some abrupt increase of precipitation in the Eastern part of the country will lead to storms, likely to be causing flooding in some of the most prone areas such as in Hadramaut governorate.

It then warned residents that the stormy weather will increase serious risks to lives and disruption on agricultural livelihoods and other sectors, such as Health, WASH, Education, and Access and communication.

The UN agency also cautioned that since the preparation and planting activities are prevailing in most of the areas in country, farms and soils may be severely affected by flooding waters.

FAO said the latest models of rainfall prediction suggest a widespread of above-normal estimates in Yemen coast and interior, which is conducive for small scale desert locust breeding conditions in Al Maharah and area between Aden and Lahj.

However, the impacts are expected to be minimal, considering the lo-calized infestation and low-density areas of desert locust are at mature stage, it added.

Continued Displacement

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that in the first quarter of 2024, the UN Multisectoral Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) recorded a significant number of individuals facing displacement due to both armed conflict and climate-induced calamities like floods and heavy rains.

It said in the past three months, a total of 14,238 individuals faced displacement. Of these, climate-related disasters impacted 2,730 individuals, while ongoing armed conflicts displaced 11,508 Individuals.

Meanwhile, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) led RRM through its implementing partners provided lifesaving assistance to 96% of the enrolled individuals across 14 affected governorates. Notably, 31 percent of the households receiving assistance were female headed households, it said.

According to the Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) indicators, these households are eligible for one-off Multipurpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) and one-off General Food Distribution (GFD).

To date, 3,565 households have received MPCA from the IOM/CCY, while 7,198 households have been provided with one-off general food assistance by the WFP.



Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Amnesty Accuses Israel of 'Live-streamed Genocide' against Gaza Palestinians

TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli strike on the Yafa school building, a school-turned-shelter, in Gaza City on April 23, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of committing a "live-streamed genocide" against Palestinians in Gaza by forcibly displacing most of the population and deliberately creating a humanitarian catastrophe.

In its annual report, Amnesty charged that Israel had acted with "specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, thus committing genocide".

Israel has rejected accusations of "genocide" from Amnesty, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

The conflict erupted after the Palestinian group Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Hamas also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel in response launched a relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and a ground operation that according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory has left at least 52,243 dead.

"Since 7 October 2023, when Hamas perpetrated horrific crimes against Israeli citizens and others and captured more than 250 hostages, the world has been made audience to a live-streamed genocide," Amnesty's secretary general Agnes Callamard said in the introduction to the report.

"States watched on as if powerless, as Israel killed thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, wiping out entire multigenerational families, destroying homes, livelihoods, hospitals and schools," she added.

'Extreme levels of suffering'

Gaza's civil defense agency said early Tuesday that four people were killed and others injured in an Israeli air strike on displaced persons' tents near the Al-Iqleem area in Southern Gaza.

The agency earlier warned fuel shortages meant it had been forced to suspend eight out of 12 emergency vehicles in Southern Gaza, including ambulances.

The lack of fuel "threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens and displaced persons in shelter centers," it said in a statement.

Amnesty's report said the Israeli campaign had left most of the Palestinians of Gaza "displaced, homeless, hungry, at risk of life-threatening diseases and unable to access medical care, power or clean water".

Amnesty said that throughout 2024 it had "documented multiple war crimes by Israel, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects, and indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks".

It said Israel's actions forcibly displaced 1.9 million Palestinians, around 90 percent of Gaza's population, and "deliberately engineered an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe".

Even as protesters hit the streets in Western capitals, "the world's governments individually and multilaterally failed repeatedly to take meaningful action to end the atrocities and were slow even in calling for a ceasefire".

Meanwhile, Amnesty also sounded alarm over Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank, and repeated an accusation that Israel was employing a system of "apartheid".

"Israel's system of apartheid became increasingly violent in the occupied West Bank, marked by a sharp increase in unlawful killings and state-backed attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian civilians," it said.

Heba Morayef, Amnesty director for the Middle East and North Africa region, denounced "the extreme levels of suffering that Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to endure on a daily basis over the past year" as well as "the world's complete inability or lack of political will to put a stop to it".