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UN to Relocate 14,000 Refugees from Frontlines in Yemen’s Marib

An internally displaced Yemeni family sit outside their shelter at Al-Suwaidan camp in Marib city, Yemen, June 2021. UNHCR/Jihad Al-Nahari
An internally displaced Yemeni family sit outside their shelter at Al-Suwaidan camp in Marib city, Yemen, June 2021. UNHCR/Jihad Al-Nahari
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UN to Relocate 14,000 Refugees from Frontlines in Yemen’s Marib

An internally displaced Yemeni family sit outside their shelter at Al-Suwaidan camp in Marib city, Yemen, June 2021. UNHCR/Jihad Al-Nahari
An internally displaced Yemeni family sit outside their shelter at Al-Suwaidan camp in Marib city, Yemen, June 2021. UNHCR/Jihad Al-Nahari

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.

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Arab World

Germany Moves Troops Out of Iraq, Citing Mideast 'Tensions'

FILE PHOTO: German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visits the Transport Helicopter Regiment 30 (Transporthubschrauberregiment 30) at the Hermann-Koehl-Kaserne in Niederstetten, Germany, August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
FILE PHOTO: German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visits the Transport Helicopter Regiment 30 (Transporthubschrauberregiment 30) at the Hermann-Koehl-Kaserne in Niederstetten, Germany, August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
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Germany Moves Troops Out of Iraq, Citing Mideast 'Tensions'

FILE PHOTO: German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visits the Transport Helicopter Regiment 30 (Transporthubschrauberregiment 30) at the Hermann-Koehl-Kaserne in Niederstetten, Germany, August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski
FILE PHOTO: German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visits the Transport Helicopter Regiment 30 (Transporthubschrauberregiment 30) at the Hermann-Koehl-Kaserne in Niederstetten, Germany, August 20, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

Germany's military has "temporarily" moved some troops out of Erbil in northern Iraq because of "escalating tensions in the Middle East," a German defense ministry spokesman told AFP on Thursday.

Dozens of German soldiers had been relocated away from the base in Erbil, capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

"Only the personnel necessary to maintain the operational capability of the camp in Erbil remain on site," the spokesman said.

The spokesman did not specify the source of the tensions, but US President Donald Trump has ordered a major build-up of US warships, aircraft and other weaponry in the region and threatened action against Iran.

German troops are deployed to Erbil as part of an international mission to train local Iraqi forces.

The spokesman said the German redeployment away from Erbil was "closely coordinated with our multinational partners".

Arab World

UN: At Least 15 Children Killed in Sudan Drone Strike

The war in Sudan, ongoing since mid-April 2023, has caused extensive destruction across the country (AFP)
The war in Sudan, ongoing since mid-April 2023, has caused extensive destruction across the country (AFP)
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UN: At Least 15 Children Killed in Sudan Drone Strike

The war in Sudan, ongoing since mid-April 2023, has caused extensive destruction across the country (AFP)
The war in Sudan, ongoing since mid-April 2023, has caused extensive destruction across the country (AFP)

A drone strike on a displacement camp in Sudan killed at least 15 children earlier this week, the United Nations reported late on Wednesday.

"On Monday 16 February, at least 15 children were reportedly killed and 10 wounded after a drone strike on a displacement camp in Al Sunut, West Kordofan," the UN children's agency said in a statement.

Across the Kordofan region, currently the Sudan war's fiercest battlefield, "we are seeing the same disturbing patterns from Darfur -- children killed, injured, displaced and cut off from the services they need to survive," UNICEF's Executive Director Catherine Russell said.

Arab World

MSF Will Keep Operating in Gaza 'as Long as We Can'

(FILES) A Palestinian man walks on his crutches to the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on new year's Eve, December 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
(FILES) A Palestinian man walks on his crutches to the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on new year's Eve, December 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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MSF Will Keep Operating in Gaza 'as Long as We Can'

(FILES) A Palestinian man walks on his crutches to the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on new year's Eve, December 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
(FILES) A Palestinian man walks on his crutches to the Doctors Without Borders or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on new year's Eve, December 31, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The head of Doctors Without Borders in the Palestinian territories told AFP the charity would continue working in Gaza for as long as possible, following an Israeli decision to end its activities there.

In early February, Israel announced it was terminating all the activities in Gaza by the medical charity, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

MSF has slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a "pretext" to obstruct aid.

"For the time being, we are still working in Gaza, and we plan to keep running our operations as long as we can," Filipe Ribeiro told AFP in Amman, but said operations were already facing challenges.

"Since the beginning of January, we are not anymore in the capacity to get international staff inside Gaza. The Israeli authorities actually denied any entry to Gaza, but also to the West Bank," he said.

Ribeiro added that MSF's ability to bring medical supplies into Gaza had also been impacted.

"They're not allowed for now, but we have some stocks in our pharmacies that will allow us to keep running operations for the time being," he said.

"We do have teams in Gaza that are still working, both national and international, and we have stocks."

In December, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organizations, including MSF, from working in Gaza from March 1 for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees, drawing widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

It had alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the medical charity has repeatedly and vehemently denied.

MSF says it did not provide the names of its Palestinian staff because Israeli authorities offered no assurances regarding their safety.

Ribeiro warned of the massive impact the termination of MSF's operations would have for healthcare in war-shattered Gaza.

"MSF is one of the biggest actors when it comes to the health provision in Gaza and the West Bank, and if we are obliged to leave, then we will create a huge void in Gaza," he said.

The charity says it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates around 20 health centers.

In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations, treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and assisted more than 10,000 infant deliveries.