Refugee crisis behind Yemen conflict

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The UN has set up camps for Yemenis displaced by the fighting By Paul Wood BBC News, Yemen

Sheltering under his tent from the blistering heat, the air thick with flies, Yahya Ahmed, told me how he had fled on foot from the Houthi advance.

He was surrounded by his 12 children and grandchildren - the reason, he said, they'd decided to run.

"If they catch us they take the child so he can fight with them," he said adding that even 10-year-olds who were caught were forced to become child soldiers.

Mr Ahmed, a shopkeeper, said he'd loaded all his furniture onto a pick-up truck. But a bullet punctured the front tire so the family had to continue on foot.

The government launched an operation to crush rebels in early August

"We just left the car and we ran away," he said, "It was dark. I had a torch. I left the furniture but we managed to take our luggage."

Some of his friends who returned to the village to check on their homes were all killed, he said.

Mr Ahmed was a government supporter - that's why he'd fled to Mazrak, just inside government-held territory.

Though another refugee, Daf Allah Gassim, was fiercely critical of the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who he said had let them all down by encouraging tribesmen to fight the Houthis, and then pulling the Army back to leave them on their own.

"We have fought with the government for three years, we have made a lot of sacrifices, a lot of our men, women and children were killed," he said, "we gave a lot and now we became refugees."

He added: "The government have shamed us and shamed our tribal leaders."

We gave a lot [to the government] and now we became refugees Daf Allah Gassim, tribesman <a class="" href="/2/hi/middle_east/8261867.stm">Cold War roots of conflict</a> <a class="" href="/2/hi/middle_east/8260414.stm">'Many killed' in Yemen air raid</a>

It seems that there were also Houthi supporters in the camp, although we couldn't find any who would speak to us with so many armed guards and government officials around.

"In the camp there is tension between who is with the government and who is against," said Mr Gassim, wondering aloud if the violence would spread here, too.

Other men squatting in the tent - some wearing the traditional Yemeni curved knife or Jambia stuck in a wide belt - nodded in agreement.

For several years, government forces have been trying to contain a growing insurgency in the area by rebels known as Houthis. Tens of thousands have fled the fighting.

Alleged abuses

The Houthis have made their own allegations of human rights abuses against the government forces and their allies.

On Wednesday, an airstrike is said to have killed 87 refugees hiding in the hills, mainly women and children. A Houthi spokesman called it a massacre.

The latest round of fighting has drawn in local tribesmen

The fighting can occasionally be glimpsed from the camp. The last Army checkpoint is only about five miles further down the road. Pick-up trucks full of soldiers zip up and down.

The mountains occupied by Houthis could be seen in the distance. At night, there were would flashes on the mountainside and the sound of explosions, the refugees said.

Food and water were not, yet, short in the rapidly growing camp, now 4,000 people. The biggest complaint most people had was the lack of tents for their livestock, the sheep, goats and occasional cow wilting in the heat.

The UN has launched an emergency appeal for 24 million dollars for the refugees. So far, very little money has come in.

And most of the refugees remain in the hills, stuck between rebel and government front lines, beyond the help of the international aid agencies.