Floods in Yemen kill nearly 100, damage thousands of homes

CNN/AP — 

Severe floods have killed at least 97 people in Yemen over the past month and deepened food shortages for millions of others already displaced by years of war, according to a United Nations body.

Deluges have impacted at least 56,000 homes across the country, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in its latest update on Friday, which added that more than 33,000 families had been affected since the monsoon season began in mid-July.

Damage caused in this round of flooding makes things worse for the 4.5 million Yemenis currently internally displaced and in urgent need of humanitarian aid, the UNHCR said.

A civil war broke out in Yemen in 2014, when rebel Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government.

In the intervening years the conflict has spiraled into a wider war between a Saudi Arabia-led coalition and the Iran-backed Houthis, giving rise to what the UN calls “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”