Flooding, lightning strikes kill 8 in war-hit Yemen

Flooding and lightning strikes in Yemen have killed eight civilians, an official and a doctor told AFP on Saturday, underscoring the threat of extreme weather in the war-ravaged country.

The lightning strikes occurred on Friday in the Al-Layha and Al-Zahra districts of Hodeida governorate on the Red Sea coast, said Hamza Saied, a doctor at the hospital in Al-Layha.

“Six women and a man were killed, and three others were injured,” he said.

Also on Friday, flooding killed one woman and destroyed dozens of homes in the nearby town of Hais, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Hais is located in a territory controlled by the internationally recognized government based in the southern city of Aden.

Extreme weather has displaced more than 200,000 people in Yemen so far this year, “many of whom had already been displaced multiple times,” the UN Population Fund reported earlier this week.

“Heavy rain is now forecast to affect nearly 2 million displaced people over the coming weeks, threatening lives and livelihoods across multiple communities,” it said.

The nearly decade-long war has left infrastructure in tatters across Yemen.