Four Children, 1 Woman Injured In Missile Attack On Yemeni Refugee Camp - IOM

Four children and one woman were injured in a missile attack on a refugee camp in Yemen's Marib province, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2021) Four children and one woman were injured in a missile attack on a refugee camp in Yemen's Marib province, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday.

According to an IOM statement, one victim is in critical condition and all have been transported to a nearby hospital following the dawn strike on the Al Hamma camp.

"Families have fled for their lives and come to this site to seek safety from ongoing hostilities. Civilians should never be a target," Christa Rottensteiner, IOM Yemen's Chief of Mission, said.

According to broadcaster Al Arabiya, the Houthi rebel group was behind the missile launch at the Al-Hamma camp which housed refugees that fled fighting in the country's north.

Since February 2020, Houthis have been carrying out a large-scale operation against Yemeni government forces in Marib to gain control over the province, which is also a political, military, and economic center.

Since Ansar Allah rebels (Houthis) have overtaken the power in 2014, the largest number of citizens (more than 1.2 million people, amounting to 62% of the total amount of displaced Yemen people) have fled to the North-Eastern Marib province. Approximately 94,000 people were forced to leave their homes in the southern suburbs of the province since mid-September.

Yemen has been gripped by conflict between government forces led by President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi Ansar Allah movement for nearly seven years. The situation in the country was further complicated after Saudi Arabia joined the conflict on the side of Yemen's government in 2015, launching air, land and sea operations against the Islamist rebel movement.