AHAD-ALMASARHA: Several thousands Saudis are living in makeshift camps after having being evacuated from their homes after Yemeni intruders set off fighting at the border.
They were evacuated from scores of villages earlier this month and relocated to camps far from the border as the Saudi forces began operations to flush out the intruders.
The UN Children’s Fund UNICEF said on Friday that 240 villages had reportedly been evacuated and more than 50 schools closed in Saudi Arabia since the conflict erupted.
Ali Hassan Jrad, 21, moved with his family from their home in the village of Al-Maqatba in the southern province of Jazan to Ahad-Almasarha camp, home to about 1,000 Saudi evacuees.
“My family and I have been living in a tent, which is not equipped with air conditioning because there is no electricity,” Jrad told AFP.
“We get daily food rations... but some services are lacking in the camp,” he complained.
Saudi forces entered the fray on Nov. 4, pounding infiltrators’ positions on the 2,000-meter Jabal Dukhan mountain straddling the border, after intruders killed a border guard and occupied two Saudi villages briefly.
Meanwhile, UNICEF said it was “deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict in northern Yemen,” Middle East Regional Director Sigrid Kaag said in a statement.
While some Saudi families found shelter in camps, others were taken in by friends and relatives and some, like Ahmed Salh Al-Mussawi, said they prefer to rent an apartment.
“We left all our belongings behind at the time of our evacuation. We will rent an apartment in a nearby village but we hope we will be able to return home soon,” said Al-Mussawi.
Ahad-Almasarha camp was set up on a field in a small town of the same name, some 50 km from the border.
The authorities have pitched 420 tents to accommodate them, Jazan Civil Defense chief Hammud Al-Hassani told AFP.
But organizing daily life is still far from perfect, according to a camp volunteer who acknowledged to AFP that the distribution of blankets and pillows is still erratic because the number of displaced people is still vague.
Across the border in Yemen, the number of people who have fled the fighting has been on the rise, according to UNICEF’s Kaag.
“The total number of people displaced by the conflict since 2004 has gone up to more than 175,000, from an estimated 150,000 only a few weeks ago,” added Kaag, while malnutrition is reaching “alarming levels” in Yemen.
Fighting between Yemeni forces and rebels first broke out in 2004, and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has pledged to crush the rebellion.
Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan said on Tuesday his country would keep up the pressure on the intruders until they were defeated.
