SANAA, 07 October 2021, (TON): Local officials said Thousands of Yemenis in Marib’s Al-Abedia district are at risk of dying from starvation due to an ongoing siege by the Houthis.

The siege has forced government troops and local tribesmen to surrender, with the Iran-backed militia banning residents from leaving and entering the district as well as blocking lifesaving humanitarian assistance from reaching people.

The militia has, at the same time, intensified shelling of residential areas and government fortifications with missiles, mortar rounds, and heavy machine guns.

Local aid “organizations and officials said that more than 30,000 people, most of them women and children, were facing mass famine as food was running out in grocery stores. There were also shortages of fuel and medicine”

Khaled Al-Shajani, deputy head of the Marib office of the Executive Unit for IDP Camps, told media “Al-Abedia is coming under (Houthi) siege, shelling and assaults on the ground.”

He said that local organizations had failed to dispatch humanitarian assistance as the Houthis had tightened their grip on the district’s entrances.