The most urgent needs are for shelter and clean drinking water. Many homes were completely or partially destroyed during the fighting. In partnership with the Yemeni Red Crescent, the ICRC remains active in the north of the country in order to address the needs of the returnees and those still displaced and unable to return home.

Emergency assistance

From June to August 2007, the ICRC and the Yemeni Red Crescent assisted about 16,500 displaced persons in the governorate of Sa’ada. The aid included tents, tarpaulins, mattresses, blankets, jerry cans and soap.

Primary health care for the displaced and resident population

In partnership with the YRCS, the ICRC established five mobile health clinics in Sa’ada to respond to the needs of those uprooted by the fighting.

The clinics in Al Anad, Sam, Alsahn, Al Matlouh and Al Guzha have provided essential health care, in particular to children under the age of five, treating common diseases which might otherwise have led to severe outbreaks.

The five clinics treated more than 4,500 patients between June and August. The ICRC referred emergency cases to the Republican Hospital in Sa’ada town and covered the costs of medication.

Since mid-August, seven to ten patients a week have been fitted with prostheses or orthoses in three ICRC-supported orthopaedic centres in Yemen.

Water trucking

To respond to the need for clean drinking water, the ICRC has installed reservoirs and organized water trucking operations in various locations.

The daily supply of clean drinking water for the displaced in Al Anad and Sam camps was maintained during the period under review.

In the area of Al Saifi, the ICRC installed 8 water tanks each with a capacity of 2000 litres to supply 1,890 returnees. The tanks are filled twice a day by trucking in water.

In Dahyan, the ICRC is paying for the costs of the diesel required to operate water pumps supplying 14,000 people following the damage sustained by the water supply network.

Physical rehabilitation

The ICRC continued its support to two state-run orthopaedic centres by assuming the costs for the training of orthopaedic technicians.

In the period under review, 400 patients were fitted with prostheses or orthoses in the three ICRC-supported centres in Mukallah, Aden and Sana’a.

Restoring and maintaining family links

ICRC tracing services help asylum seekers and refugees in Yemen, mostly from the Horn of Africa, locate and restore contact with family members abroad. It also enables Yemeni families to restore and maintain ties with relatives held in U.S detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

During the period under review:

• 8 people were located and able to restore links with their families
• More than 1,200 red cross messages were exchanged between refugees in Yemen and their families abroad
• 350 red cross messages were exchanged between detainees in Guantanamo and their families in Yemen
• 56 red cross messages were exchanged between those detained in relation to the conflict in Iraq and their families
• 44 red cross messages were exchanged between those detained in relation to the conflict in Afghanistan and their families

• 2 detainees were visited by the ICRC after their transfer from Guantanamo Bay to the Political Security detention centre in Sana’a

• A vocational training programme for women detained in six central prisons continued to be implemented in partnership with the Yemeni Red Crescent. The project aims to strengthen the women’s skills in the fields of literacy, sewing, weaving and needlework in the prisons of Mahaweet, Hoddeida, Dhammar, Amran, Ibb and Sana’a

• Advice and financial support has been provided to the Sana’a branch of the YRCS which is implementing a programme to help the immigration authorities cope with the increasingly large number of detained migrants awaiting deportation. Health care, hygiene facilities and nutritional assistance is provided to the immigration detention centre in Sana’a.