UN: Yemen clashes displace100,000 people

An UN agency says a recent surge in fighting between the Yemeni government and fighters has forced more than 100,000 people, many of them children, to leave their homes.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) voices "serious concern" over the impact of the escalating violence on women and children in the northwestern Saada province.

"It is estimated that over 100,000 persons have been displaced by the latest round of fighting, (and) many of them are children," Reuters quoted Aboudou Karimou Adjibade, UNICEF representative in Yemen, as saying.

The warning comes as government forces have killed 100 anti-government Houthi fighters and arrested 300 others in the province in the past few days.

The Houthis belong to the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam.

Marie Okabe, a UNICEF spokesman, also announced that the agency is trying to supply the refugees with water filters, jerry cans and hygiene kits, as well as 300,000 water purification tablets.

Alongside with UNICEF, the World Food Program (WFP) also decided to boost its food aide to 150,000 Yemenis compared with 95,000 who had received help last month.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that some 35,000 people displaced in just past two weeks as a result of the conflict in Yemen.

Fighting between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and Shia fighters has killed dozens, mostly fighters, since the government launched a wide offensive against Shia tribes earlier in the month.

Yemen's government officials accuse opposition groups of trying to reinstall a religious reign, toppled by a 1962 military coup in northern Yemen.

In addition, government officials on August 13 announced 6 conditions for halting their offensive.

These included the opposition's withdrawal from all districts of Sa'ada and mountainous sites and giving up the military hardware they had seized from the army.