(Dubai) Forty-five people have died in Yemen in recent days in floods caused by torrential rains, according to a count established by AFP based on figures published Wednesday by a UN agency and a local official.
“Heavy rains and floods in Maqbanah, in the southwestern province of Taiz, on 2 August, affected around 10,000 people and caused 15 deaths,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on X.
For his part, Mohamed Qahim, the governor of the Hodeida region, held by the Houthi rebels, announced on television a death toll of 30 and five people missing.
Houses were destroyed and more than seven cars were swept away by the floods, he added.
OCHA said the floods had buried 80 wells, washed away farmland and damaged homes, citing “access difficulties” and a lack of funding for aid agencies.
The UN agricultural agency (FAO) had previously said that Yemen was expected to see “cumulative rainfall of 300 millimeters over the central highlands and southern highlands, with the highest intensity of daily rainfall [plus de 120 mm] scheduled for August 7th.
Since late July, several regions of Yemen have experienced heavy rainfall and flooding, disrupting the lives of many people in the war-ravaged country.
On July 28, OCHA reported the deaths of three people as a result of flooding in the rebel-held northern governorate of Saada. More than 1,000 homes of displaced people had been destroyed, affecting some 2,000 families, according to the UN agency.
The war in Yemen has pitted Houthi rebels against the internationally recognized government since 2014. In a decade, it has left hundreds of thousands dead and caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, according to the UN.
The conflict became international in 2015 with the entry on the front line of a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, in support of the government of the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula.
More than half of the population depends on humanitarian aid.