Fighting between government forces and followers of the late Sheikh Badr Eddin al-Houth have led to displacement in northern Yemen at regular intervals since 2004, peaking during the latest round of conflict in June and July 2008. Though many returned to their places of origin following the end of hostilities in July 2008, large numbers were unable to return home.
An estimated 100,000 people remain internally displaced as result of the Sa'ada conflict, including some who have gone back to places of origin. In June and July 2009 the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) increased by several thousand as intermittent fighting continued.
Though access to affected areas has improved since the conflict, it has remained limited. Attacks on humanitarian personnel have included kidnapping and recently killings.
Background: Fragile state, natural disasters and ongoing conflicts
Yemen faces a number of severe economic and political challenges. In recent years the government has faced intermit-tent internal armed conflict in Sa'ada in northern Yemen, a growing southern separatist movement, and resurgence of terrorist groups including al-Qaida (US-DoS, September 2008). It is the poorest state in the Arab world, with high unemployment and an estimated 35 per cent of the population below the poverty line; it faces food insecurity, widespread water scarcity and depletion of its natural re-sources including oil (WB, April 2009). The country also hosts over 152,000 refugees, most of them Somali (UNHCR, June 2009).
Several incidents of internal displacement have resulted from internal conflicts and disturbances as well as natural disasters. Recent natural disasters have included widespread flooding and slow-onset disasters such as drought and land erosion. Several thousand were displaced in Al Mahwit governorate since 2007 by droughts, and in October 2008 flooding in the eastern governorates of Hadramout and Al-Mahara caused the displacement of 20,000 to 25,000 people (WFP, December 2008; OCHA, November 2008).
Conflict in the south
Until 1990, Yemen was divided into two states; the northern Yemen Arab Repub-lic and the more secular People's Democ-ratic Republic of Yemen in the south (HRW, October 1994; USDoS, 2007). The two fought three short wars, in 1972, 1979, and 1988. In 1990, national reconciliation led to the unified Republic of Yemen with Sana'a as its capital, but differences were never resolved (HRW, Oc-tober 1994) and civil war broke out in 1994. The 70-day war led to the displacement of 53,000 people, mainly from the governorates of Aden, Lahj, Tai'z and Abyan, where most of the fighting took place (HRW, October 1994).
Tensions have since persisted, with southerners protesting against political exclusion, harrassment, and the presence of military camps and checkpoints (MERIP, July 2005). Numerous protests have taken place since 2006, most recently in May 2009 in Lahj, Hadramout and Abyan (Al Jazeera, April 2009 and May 2009). In May 2009 around 200 families were reportedly temporarily displaced in Lahj following violent clashes (IDMC inter-view, May 2009; IRIN, May 2009).
Conflict in the north
In the northern governorate of Sa'ada, a group referred to as "Al-Huthis" after the family name of the leader of the rebellion, has since early 2004 engaged in an armed conflict with the Yemeni army and government-backed tribes. Husain Badr al-Din al-Huthi founded "Believing Youth" (al-shabab al-mu'min) primarily to pro-mote Zaydi Shi'ia religious education, but it developed into an opposition movement. The conflict began with isolated clashes in Sa'ada but by mid-2008 extended to the rest of the governorate, in addition to Am-ran, Sana'a, and Jawf governorates. As of June 2009, Saqayan, Haydan, Razih, and Ghamar districts in Sa'ada were contested or under Huthi control.
There have been five rounds of conflict: from June to September 2004; from March to April 2005; from July 2005 to February 2006; from January to June 2007; and from May to July 2008 (HRW, November 2008; UN Inter-Agency Re-port, May 2007). The intensity of the conflict has increased in each round. The government has reportedly used fighter jets, helicopters, tanks and artillery to at-tack Huthi positions, mostly in rural areas but also in heavily populated towns. The Huthis have also reportedly used heavy artillery and anti-aircraft guns, and have also been accused of violations of humanitarian and human rights law (HRW, November 2008). Both sides have reportedly used landmines (IRIN, September 2008 and April 2007).
Estimates of the number of casualties since 2004 have ranged from several thousand to tens of thousands killed or injured (MERIP, July 2005; IDMC inter-view, May 2009). Local human rights groups have reported that thousands of people have been arrested, that more than a hundred have been victims of forced disappearance, and that some are still being detained (IRIN, July 2008; HRW, October 2008). Though the government announced a unilateral ceasefire in July 2008, intermittent violence has continued in Sa'ada governorate. Recent reports of increasing violence and mobilisation by both parties have raised concerns of a sixth round of conflict (Yemen Times, June 2009; IRIN, June 2009).
Profile and geographical distribution of IDPs
In contrast to the extensive information available on displacement resulting from natural disasters, information on people displaced by the conflict in the north has been limited by access difficulties and the lack of a profiling exercise.
There was consensus amongst the United Nations and international agencies in July 2009 that an estimated 100,000 people remained displaced (UNHCR July, 2009; WFP July 2009). The World Food Pro-gramme (WFP), UNHCR and the Inter-national Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have however different operational figures related to their mandates and geographical areas of operation. In June 2009, WFP was assisting almost 83,000 IDPs including formerly registered IDPs who were able to access distribution sites (WFP, July 2009). UNHCR had registered 25,000 IDPs by June 2009 in accessible areas in Sa'ada and Bani Houshesh in Sana'a governorate, and was waiting to be able to conduct a full profiling exercise (UNHCR, June 2009).
In Sa'ada, registered IDPs were princi-pally located in and around Sa'ada city and al Mahaleet town in Al Dhahr district. There were 6,800 in four camps in Sa'ada city (three camps had closed following the conflict), and 8,100 people located with hosts (UNHCR, June 2009). In Mahaleet, more than 6,700 IDPs were living in small dispersed makeshift settlements of mudbrick shelters, as well as occupying several schools; and there were over 600 IDPs in Bani Houshesh (UNHCR, June 2009).
At the height of the conflict in July 2008, OCHA estimated that 130,000 people were displaced or affected, many of whom had repeatedly been displaced by previous rounds. 77,000 of them had found refuge in Sa'ada city and were re-eiving assistance from humanitarian agencies. 15,000 to 20,000 of them were living in seven IDP camps located in and around Sa'ada city, while the rest were sheltering with host communities. Between 60,000 and 70,000 were believed to be displaced in remote rural areas where limits in access were preventing the de-livery of assistance (OCHA, July 2008; IDMC interview, July 2009). Following the end of hostilities, many of the IDPs in Sa'ada city reportedly returned to their areas of origin (IRIN, September 2008).
New displacement has followed intermit-tent fighting. Fighting from March 2009 between Huthi and pro-government tribes in Ghamar, Razih, Saqayen, and Haydan districts displaced people within these districts and towards Sa'ada city and Ma-haleet town (IDMC interview, May 2009; IRIN, June 2009). In June 2009, WFP and UNHCR registered 5,000 newly displaced people, and WFP was continuing the registration of an estimated 5,000 IDPs (WFP, July 2009).
However, the total number of people still displaced by the conflict may be higher. In May 2009, several IDP communities in Sana'a city, possibly comprising a hundred or more households, had not been registered by the humanitarian community (IDMC interview, May 2009; Al Nadaa, March 2009). In inaccessible areas, particularly in war-affected areas of Sa'ada and Amran governorates, there is very little information on the number and profile of IDPs and many people displaced by previous rounds of conflict, including IDPs who have returned since July 2008, are unlikely to have found durable solutions.
The Sa'ada conflict caused the displacement principally of poor rural farming communities. In addition, members of public institutions have been displaced from Huthi-controlled areas on the basis of their allegiance to the state, and others due to their membership of tribes or clans that have assisted the government in the conflict. Meanwhile, people have left areas under government control for fear of being labelled as sympathetic to the Huthis (IDMC interview, May 2009).
70 per cent of IDPs were estimated in January 2009 to be women and children (UNICEF, January 2009). However in certain localities such as the district of Bani Houshesh in Sa'na, the percentage of women and children was initially higher with many men and some boys having been reportedly arrested or detained during the conflict; many of them are still reportedly detained (IDMC inter-view, May 2009).
Sa'ada is principally Shi'ia of the Zaydi doctrine with a sizeable Sunni population. The majority of IDPs in the north are Shi'ia, though Sunni have also been displaced as well as a small Jewish community of 65 people which the government resettled to Sana'a in January 2007 after threats were made against them (Yemen Times, February 2009 and April 2009).