Yemen’s Marib governorate received about 412 families comprising 2,954 people during September 2026, as a new wave of displacement driven by fighting and deteriorating security on the western coast and in neighbouring areas forced people to seek shelter. The governorate is facing growing pressure on camps, housing and basic services, with shelter and food topping the list of the new arrivals’ most urgent needs.
In a makeshift home in Al-Qouz camp, five displaced families share one room in a small dwelling consisting of no more than two rooms and a tent. The families arrived in Marib after fleeing the latest military escalation, but could not rent independent housing or stay in hotels because of the high costs, so they turned to relatives and displaced people who had arrived in the governorate before them.
The overcrowding reflects some of the pressures facing newly displaced families, as the space can no longer accommodate more people. The homes of some long-term displaced people have become temporary shelters for relatives and people from their areas, amid limited housing options.
Privacy concerns and social customs prevented the room shared by the families from being filmed, while signs of exhaustion and deprivation were visible on their faces at the doorway. Among the arrivals is Ahmed Hassan Ibrahim Khabah, a teacher in his sixties from Al-Durayhimi district in Hudaydah governorate.
Khabah says his arrival in Marib followed the fifth displacement he has experienced in his life, while the latest journey was the fourth for the rest of his family. The war has turned his life from working in education to repeatedly moving in search of safety. Khabah says his latest journey began as fighting escalated on the western coast, when he left the area with large numbers of civilians.
According to his account, a convoy carrying thousands of displaced people stopped in one area to rest before a ballistic missile struck the middle of the gathering, killing and injuring people and scattering members of the convoy. He adds that some survivors returned to search for the injured before the same area came under a second attack by a drone.
He said he saw burned bodies and remains, estimating the death toll at more than 100 people, most of them women and children. However, this figure is based on his account; he provided no independent document to support it, and it has not been independently verified.
Displacement from the western coast intensifies
The account comes amid a broad wave of displacement across areas of the western coast during September, following fighting and deteriorating security that forced tens of thousands of civilians to leave. The latest reports by the government’s Executive Unit for Displaced Persons Camp Management show that the military escalation since the start of the month displaced 25,116 families, comprising 169,074 people, to 10 governorates.
The International Organisation for Migration, meanwhile, recorded the displacement of 129,438 people, equivalent to 21,573 families, to seven governorates from the beginning of the displacement wave linked to fighting in Taiz, the western coast and Bab el-Mandeb until 20 September.
The organisation’s data showed an increase of 2,406 displaced people compared with its previous update, and indicated that Taiz hosts the largest recorded concentration of displaced people in this wave. On 22 September, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that more than 130,000 people had been displaced within Yemen since the start of the month as the fighting spread.
The UNHCR warned that more people could be forced to flee in the coming months as the conditions that drove families to leave their areas and seek safer places persist. In Marib, a recent report by the Executive Unit for Displaced Persons Camp Management showed that the governorate received 412 families comprising 2,954 people during the new wave.
Taiz and Hudaydah top the list of places of origin
Most of the arrivals came from Taiz and Hudaydah governorates, which together accounted for about 89% of the newly registered families, highlighting the direct link between displacement and the escalation on the western coast and in surrounding areas. The report recorded the arrival of 255 families from Taiz, representing 61.9% of all families arriving in Marib. Most came from the districts of Maqbanah, Al-Wazi’iyah, Mawza, Mokha and Hayfan.
A further 110 families arrived from Hudaydah governorate, accounting for 26.7%; most came from the districts of Hays, Al-Khokha and Al-Jarrahi, as well as Hudaydah city. Al-Jawf governorate accounted for 47 families, or 11.4% of the arrivals, most of whom came from Khab wa ash Sha’af district.
The new families were distributed across three main areas of Marib. Marib city, the governorate’s capital, received 285 families, representing 69.17% of the total, while 105 families arrived in Marib al-Wadi, accounting for 25.49%. Hareeb district received a further 22 families, or 5.34% of the arrivals. But reaching the city or other districts did not mean the families obtained independent housing, as some displaced people sought help from relatives and acquaintances who had themselves fled earlier.
This led to overcrowded homes, with families displaced for years taking responsibility for hosting people who had recently fled the same areas. Among them is Abdullah Hassan Ibrahim, a former displaced person who opened his small home, consisting of two rooms and a tent, to his newly arrived brothers after they could no longer afford hotel costs.
Abdullah said: “We welcomed them and said, ‘You are most welcome,’ after they could not afford the exorbitant hotel costs. We carried out our simple humanitarian duty by providing drinking water and sharing what we had.” Abdullah believes this hospitality does not address the underlying problem, as the arriving families still need independent shelter where they can stay together and have a minimum level of privacy and stability.
He called on the Executive Unit, local authorities and humanitarian organisations to intervene quickly to address the families’ conditions before their needs worsen. The long-term displaced person has found himself hosting newly displaced people rather than seeking shelter alone. The breakdown of arrivals by age and gender reveals the clearly familial nature of the new wave.
Children and women make up most new arrivals
This composition places additional pressure on the humanitarian response, particularly as many families rely on aid or on hosting by relatives who themselves face difficult living conditions and limited resources. Marib has received successive waves of displaced people since the conflict in Yemen began 12 years ago, despite being one of the main front lines between government forces and the Houthis.
Government authorities say the governorate is home to the largest concentration of internally displaced people, while Executive Unit data show that it cumulatively hosted 2,217,152 displaced people between 2014 and September 2026.
Although this figure is cumulative and covers years of conflict, the arrival of hundreds of new families adds to the burden on shelter and services already strained by the effects of prolonged displacement. The pressure is evident inside the camps, where the need to receive new arrivals coincides with declining support for families displaced at earlier stages that remain unable to meet their needs independently.
Declining aid adds to pressure on camps
In Al-Jufainah Al-Sufla camp, one of Marib’s largest concentrations of displaced people, Abed Sadeeq and his wife, who came from Hudaydah governorate, spoke about the difficult conditions facing families. The couple described the situation as “extremely bad” and said each family was struggling on its own amid the mounting pressures on camp residents.
According to their account, the humanitarian aid they had previously received had declined sharply, including support that helped them access hospitals and service facilities. They said the aid had almost disappeared in recent days, leaving displaced people caught between the rising cost of living and the shrinking relief assistance.
The Executive Unit’s report places shelter and non-food items at the top of the critical needs of new arrivals. Priorities include providing tents and emergency shelter supplies, as well as strengthening food security and livelihoods through food baskets and urgent nutritional interventions to address the immediate circumstances of families who arrived without housing or adequate resources.
Water, sanitation and protection services are among the high-priority needs, while the report classifies health, education, rapid response kits and cash assistance as medium-priority needs.
These requirements are increasingly important as families arrive without independent accommodation and previously displaced people are forced to share their homes and limited resources with them, while tents and temporary housing remain the only options available to many. For Ahmed Hassan Khabah, Marib was not the first stop on a displacement journey repeated five times, while his family has begun four similar journeys.
In the Al-Qouz camp home where five families share one room, the families are still waiting for shelter that protects their privacy. Their arrival in the governorate marks a new stage in their search for a safe place and a sustainable life.
