Fierce battles waged by Houthis against Yemen’s oil-rich Marib governorate entered their fourth week on Saturday with the Iran-backed militia refusing to heed international and UN calls to seize hostilities there.
Houthis disregarded calls by Yemeni internationally recognized government and human rights organizations and continued to fire ballistic missiles against Marib, where nearly two million Yemenis sought refuge from the raging violence in the war-torn country.
Field sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Houthis, over the last 20 days, have lost around 2,500 fighters across battlefronts west, south and northwest of Marib.
Houthi leaders are intensifying recruitment campaigns in areas under their control to secure enough support for their assaults in Marib, reported local sources in Houthi-run Sanaa.
Houthis, especially their leader Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, have rejected discussing a ceasefire, claiming that their offensive in Marib is aimed at controlling the governorate’s oil and gas.
At some instances, Houthis justify their violence by “divine” obligation to fight off the US and Israel.
On the dangers of the humanitarian disaster threatening the lives of Yemenis in Marib, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry released an official statement urging human relief organizations to shoulder their responsibility in stepping in and saving the lives of civilians and refugees in the governorate.
“They face the repercussions of the Houthi terrorist war machine,” the ministry said about Yemenis in Marib.
It went on to stress that Marib has offered asylum to more than two million displaced people who fled Houthi oppression in search of safety.
Since the beginning of February, the governorate has been exposed to the largest and fiercest Houthi attacks that featured the usage of all types of weaponry, including drones and ballistic missiles.
Yemen’s information minister, for his part, warned of an imminent humanitarian crisis in Marib that “cannot be contained” due to continued fighting by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.
Minister Moammar al-Eryani told the country’s state news agency Saba that the governorate holds the biggest number of refugee families, who have been displaced due to the ongoing Houthi violence.
Eryani said Marib had received more than two million refugees who have settled there since the war broke out, saying they make up 60 % of refugees in the country. Those refugees represent 7.5 % of the total population in Yemen.
The minister was citing a report on from the Executive Unit for IDPs Camps Management that was released Friday.
