AL-MUKALLA: The internationally recognized government of Yemen has vowed to launch a military offensive to recapture strategic areas in northern Yemen taken by the Houthis over the past couple of weeks.
Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik said the war with the Iran-backed forces is in a critical phase since the Houthis made rapid military advances in the northern province of Jawf and the mountainous Nehim district, near Sanaa, stressing that the army is preparing a major offensive aimed at expelling the Houthis from those areas.
According to the official Saba news agency, Prime Minister Malik told military commanders on Tuesday that the Yemeni leadership would not tolerate military setbacks, ordering the commanders to intensify military efforts to expel the Houthis from all Yemeni areas under their control.
Malik’s remarks come as a government delegation led by the minister of local administration, Abdul Raqeeb Fateh, visited military bases in the city of Marib, where they met senior army commanders and soldiers.
Fateh told Al-Arabyia TV that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered them to travel to Marib to see what the army needed for its offensive against the Houthis and to assess humanitarian situation in city. “Victory is looming. We have seen great (military) preparations,” Fateh said from a military base in Marib.
The latest circle of fighting in Yemen erupted in January when a Houthi missile and drone attack killed more than 110 soldiers at a training camp mosque in Marib.
The Houthis have attacked government forces in Sanaa and Jawf provinces over the past couple of months. After intense fighting, they wrested control of territory in Sanaa’s Nehim district and stormed two districts in Jawf, including the city of Hazem, the province’s capital.
Displacement
Fighting in Jawf province has forced thousands of residents to flee, fearing Houthi reprisal attacks, Yemeni government officials said on Wednesday.
Yemen’s minister of information, Muammar Al-Aryani, said Houthi assaults drove more than 25,000 people out of their homes in Jawf, adding that the Houthis launched reprisal attacks on opponents who did not flee Hazem.
“Reports confirm the displacement of more than 25,000 people, including women and children, in the largest wave of displacement from the city since 2014,” Al-Aryani said on Twitter.
Residents in Marib say that dozens of vehicles carrying displaced people are arriving in Marib, and many more people slept rough in Marib desert due to lack of shelters.
The Executive Unit for the Internally Displaced People in Marib said in a statement that local aid organizations managed to meet the needs of only 5 percent of the growing number of the displaced people, urging international humanitarian organizations to step in.
The first large wave of displacement this year was in January when more than 3,000 families fled their homes and camps in Marib province and Sanaa’s Nehim district, in the wake of heavy fighting between loyalist forces and Houthis.
The fleeing families headed toward the city of Marib amid severe shortages of shelters, food and medication.
