Roundup: More than 2,700 civilians killed since start of conflict in Yemen in January

More than 2,700 civilians have been killed since the start of conflict in Yemen in January, senior UN officials said here Tuesday.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, said in his briefing to the UN Security Council that the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen has estimated that the conflict in the Middle East country has also left more than 5,300 people injured in addition to the heavy civilian death toll.

The office has also documented dozens of cases of alleged illegal detention, primarily at the hands of the Popular Committees affiliated with the Houthis, he said.

UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Kyung-wha Kang said that around 7.6 million people in Yemen need emergency food assistance to survive. At least two million people are malnourished, including 320,000 children who suffer from severe malnutrition.

The conflict between the factions has worsened Yemen's already poor food situation, with more than 3 million people thrusted to the ranks of the hungry in less than a year and 7.6 million people severely food insecure, a level that requires urgent, external, food aid.

Also briefing the 15-nation UN council, the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said that the recent meetings in Switzerland between the parties provided a solid foundation for resumed talks in the future and a basis for renewed, strengthened cessation of hostilities.

At the same time, he said, the talks revealed deep divisions between the two sides and trust between the parties remains weak.

In the face of numerous violations of the cessation of hostilities in Yemen, the special envoy on Sunday decided to adjourn peace talks in Switzerland for a month to allow for bilateral in-country and regional consultations to achieve a ceasefire.

"Given the centrality of the cessation of hostilities to the success of talks, the special envoy has elected to adjourn the talks until the middle of January 2016," Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a communique.

The special envoy also noted the worsening security situation in Yemen, saying that the residents of Taiz continue to suffer the consequences of heavy fighting and a severe lack of assistance. He said that the conflict and the security vacuum it caused have led to a dangerous expansion of extremist groups in the country.

The situation in Yemen has substantially deteriorated since the conflict broke out in early 2015, with a 9 percent increase in the internally displaced persons (IDPs), which have reached 2.5 million, according to a recent United Nations-backed report on the issue.

"The ongoing conflict, damage to civilian infrastructure, and strain on already depleted resources have exacerbated an already precarious humanitarian situation," said Johannes van der Klaauw, the representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Yemen, highlighting the latest report of the Task Force on Population Movement (TFPM), which was led by UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners.

The main needs of IDPS, according to the report, are food, water, sanitation and hygiene, and shelters. Most IDPs have lost their livelihoods and have sought shelter with relatives and friends, in schools, public and abandoned buildings and makeshift shelters or in the open with little to no protection.

Last week, the UN World Health Organization and its partners appealed for 31 million U.S. dollars to ensure the continuity of medical services for nearly 15 million Yemenis following the collapse of the country's health system.

Endemic food shortages, along with reduced access to health facilities and sanitation, have further been compounded by the lack of fuel, electricity, gas and water.

Yemen has mired in political gridlock since 2011 when mass protests forced former President Ali Abdullash Saleh to step down.

The ongoing crisis in conflict-stricken Yemen is reflection of a regional unrest in the Middle East, especially after the forces of fleeing President Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi seized strategic southern city of Aden against Shiite Houthi fighters, reports said.

The Shiite Houthi group launched attacks on Aden city, which President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi declared as temporary capital after he fled weeks of house arrest by the Houthis in Sanaa.

On March 26, a Saudi-led coalition started airstrikes on Houthi targets in Sanaa and other cities, saying the multinational action was to protect Hadi's legitimacy and force the Houthis to retreat from cities it seized since September 2014. Endit