More than 290,000 people have been forced from their homes since the beginning of August by the resurgence of the conflict in Yemen, the United Nations said on Friday. The UN warned that the fighting showed no sign of easing and that thousands of pregnant women are among those uprooted. The UN Population Fund estimated that nearly 6,100 pregnant women were among the recently displaced, including 600 expected to give birth within the next two weeks, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

The latest displacements were in addition to more than 5.2 million people already internally displaced in Yemen before the fighting reignited, and thousands more have fled across the Red Sea to Djibouti. More than 65,000 refugees and asylum-seekers already in Yemen face a rapidly worsening humanitarian situation, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Fighting between forces loyal to Yemen's internationally recognised government and Houthi rebels has intensified, particularly in Taiz governorate and coastal areas.

Aid reaching three in four

Humanitarian partners have so far managed to reach nearly 249,000 displaced people with food aid, hygiene supplies and emergency cash, and have been scaling up their response where they can, Dujarric said. That is about three in four of the newly displaced, leaving a large minority still beyond the reach of organised relief. The UN has sent mobile teams and midwives to displacement sites, where the immediate need is for safe deliveries, clean water and basic medical care.

The UN has verified 270 civilian casualties since August, including 68 killed, half of whom are children. A Yemeni rights network reported at least 189 civilians killed in Taiz province alone between early September and late October. The figures underline why the displacement total matters: behind the 290,000 is a health system, already fragile before August, now trying to cope with births, injuries and disease in informal camps rather than hospitals.