Floods in Yemen kill 33 people, damage more than 200 homes

Floods that swept through a district in northern Yemen this week have killed at least 33 people and damaged more than 200 houses, a local official said.

Heavy rains that began on Tuesday as part of Yemen’s monsoon season have caused major flooding and unleashed rockslides in the Melhan district of Al-Mahwit province.

The floods have killed 33 people, destroyed 28 houses and caused cracks in 200 others, Ali al-Zikam, secretary-general of the local council of Al-Mahwit province, said late on Wednesday on Facebook. The flooding also swept away five cars and left several people missing, he said.

Yemen’s Red Crescent said on Thursday that 38 people are still missing, and that the agency is actively looking for them.

"The magnitude of the disaster in al-Mahwit is substantial," the agency said.

Yemenis have already been suffering from a ruinous civil war that tore through their country starting in 2014, when the Iran-backed Houthis took control of the capital Sanaa and much of the north and forced the internationally recognized government into exile.

Over 33,000 families throughout the country have been impacted by the floods since the monsoon season began in Yemen mid-July. On Wednesday, the Houthis said in a statement that 86 people lost their lives in flooding in the southern city of Hodeida, Reema and Hajjah provinces.