United Nations groups say around 150,000 people have been made refugees since the fighting began in 2004 and thousands are living in official and makeshift camps.Children displaced by the ongoing hostilities in northwestern Yemen wait in line for handouts from U.N. relief agencies in al-Mazraq refugee camp near the Saada province September 14, 2009.
Oxfam warned that Yemen could soon face a humanitarian crisis as a result of the escalation of fighting.
The situation has worsened since Sanaa launched Operation Scorched Earth last month in an attempt to crush the Shia Zaydi sect in Saada and Amran provinces.
"The conflict-driven emergency in Yemen could soon ignite into a full-blown humanitarian crisis unless immediate action is taken to stop the fighting," Oxfam said in a statement, asking for safe passage for refugees in the mountainous region.
"The agency calls on all parties to the conflict to implement an immediate and lasting ceasefire to the fighting that started on 11 August, and for the international community to intervene diplomatically to that end," the statement said.
A report earlier this month by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that a combination of events could weaken government authority and destabilize the whole region.
CIVILIAN DEATHS CONDEMNED
Last week two army air raids were reported to have killed dozens of civilians, and were condemned by aid organisations and Yemeni rights groups.
Media have had difficulty reaching the conflict zone and ceasefire offers by each side have come to nothing.
The situation in Saada province remains volatile after weekend clashes, the U.N. refugee agency said.
"This is the second failed ceasefire in less than a month," UNHCR (U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a news briefing in Geneva, adding that 1,600 people were received in Saada after a recent lull in the fighting.
Families are still arriving at the Al Mazraq camp in Hajjah province, which now holds some 5,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), Mahecic said.
"Some walk for days through the desert before reaching the site. People in the camp are struggling to survive daily hardships as well as brutal weather," he said.
The government says the Houthis group after their clan leaders, want to restore a Shia state that fell in the 1960s.
The Shia group say they want autonomy and accuse President Ali Abdullah Saleh of despotism and corruption in a drive to stay in power, and of introducing Sunni fundamentalism via his alliance with Riyadh.
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