The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Tuesday said it is encouraged that the ceasefire between Yemeni government troops and Houthi rebels has endured since coming into effect on February 11. This is the first lasting ceasefire since the six year old conflict re-ignited in August last year causing the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Yemen to almost double to 250,000. The refugee agency is renewing its calls for humanitarian access to the Sa'ada province to enable delivery of aid and said coordination meetings have already started aimed at securing safe passage to the region that was the center of much of the fighting. "We are especially concerned about the safety of those IDPs who may decide to return on their own as parts of Sa'ada province where fighting took place remain littered with mines and unexploded ordnance," said Melissa Fleming, UNHCR spokesperson. She also cautioned that without an influx of funding, UNHCR might be forced to scale down or even suspend its operations in Yemen. To date, the agency has received less than three percent of the almost $40 million it has asked for from the 2010 U.N. appeal for Yemen.
