\n<\/p>\n
ADEN: After a drone strike sent shrapnel flying into his wife\u2019s chest, killing her, Muhammad Aiyash and his three children fled with no belongings \u200bto a new makeshift camp for the displaced in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.<\/strong><\/p>\n Panic has spread as Yemen\u2019s Houthis trounced \u200cSaudi-backed government forces in a lightning offensive along the country\u2019s Red Sea coast that has enabled the Iran-aligned militants to seize another part of the country and tighten their grip over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world\u2019s most important shipping routes for goods and commodities, including oil.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBy God, we do not possess even a single grain \u200bof flour. We have no mattresses and no clothes,\u201d said Aiyash, who is in his 60s and left his home behind in \u200bthe ancient port city of Mocha in a desperate search for shelter in Yemen\u2019s latest crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n The U.N. refugee agency said \u2060on Tuesday that more than 100,000 people had been internally displaced by the renewed conflict in Yemen, and that thousands more have fled by \u200bsea to Djibouti.<\/span><\/p>\n The Houthis, mountain fighters who often wear sandals and enjoy the national pastime of chewing the stimulant green leaf qat, have emerged over the years \u200binto a military force of tens of thousands.<\/span><\/p>\n In the latest round of fighting they have extended their control from the northern, most populous areas of Yemen, to cities and towns and islands in the west.<\/span><\/p>\n They have also opened a new area of combat in the Iran war, increasing pressure on global energy markets following the earlier effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/span><\/p>\n The Houthis have attacked targets \u200binside Saudi Arabia, which has been forced to temporarily close the vital East-West pipeline that had served as an alternative to shipping through Hormuz.<\/span><\/p>\n At \u200bthe Aden camp, families sat beside tents, tending sheep and trying to assemble rudimentary shelters. Children stayed close to their parents as adults carried belongings.<\/span><\/p>\n One displaced man, Tawfiq \u200cal-Kharij, showed \u2060a shrapnel injury to his leg as he sat with relatives outside a tent. He said he escaped with nothing but the clothes he was wearing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe were living peacefully in God\u2019s care, then the war came suddenly,\u201d Kharij said. \u201cSome died, and others survived.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n UNHCR said on Tuesday that humanitarian access remained \u201ca major challenge\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cInsecurity, damaged roads, telecommunications disruptions and movement restrictions are affecting operations,\u201d the agency said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n Khadija Kudaf and her children had to walk for three days to \u200bget to Aden, a port city. \u201cWe \u200bdidn\u2019t even bring the children\u2019s \u2060clothes,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Yemenis are all too familiar with suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n The Arab world\u2019s most impoverished country has been mired in conflict since the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention the following year in \u200ba civil war that led to one of the world\u2019s biggest humanitarian crises. The Houthis withstood years \u200bof heavy Saudi-led bombing \u2060during the civil war.<\/span><\/p>\n A U.N.-brokered truce in 2022 largely halted major fighting, despite expiring six months later, but efforts to turn it into a lasting political settlement have stalled as regional tensions have intensified.<\/span><\/p>\n In Taiz province, northwest of Aden, another newly erected camp has begun to receive people fleeing fighting. Women and children carried water \u2060in jerrycans at the \u200bcamp, while others washed clothes and gathered around tents.<\/span><\/p>\n A displaced woman there, Taghreed Salem, \u200bsaid families were struggling to find basic supplies.<\/span><\/p>\n\u2018THE WAR CAME SUDDENLY\u2019<\/span><\/h2>\n