The fighting between the Houthis and pro-government forces has intensified in the oil-rich province, with at least 53 dead on both sides already announced on Saturday.
The Houthis have been trying since February to wrest the Marib region but their offensive remains repulsed by loyalist forces aided by the aviation of a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia which has been operating in the country since 2015.
The offensive, which has seen times of resurgence and relatively calmer periods, has not ceased despite numerous calls for a truce in the country at war for more than six years.
In the past 24 hours, 30 fighters from loyalist forces and 44 members of the Houthi rebels have been found dead in the clashes, according to two government military officials.
The rebels seldom disclose their losses.
The fighting focused on the fronts of Kassara and Machjaa, northwest of the town of Marib, capital of the eponymous region, as well as Jebel Mourad, in the south.
“They made progress on the Kassara and Machjaa fronts but were pushed back to Jebel Mourad,” one of the two officials told AFP about the rebels.
Coalition air raids destroyed “12 Houthi military vehicles, four tanks and one cannon,” the second official said.
Fear for civilians
The battle of Marib accentuated the diplomatic impasse and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the worst in the world according to the UN.
Large numbers of civilians displaced by the fighting have found refuge in Marib. According to the Yemeni government, around 140 camps have been established in the region to accommodate more than two million displaced people.
The loss of Marib would be a blow to the government and Riyadh. The Iranian-backed Houthis captured the capital Sanaa, 120 kilometers west of Marib, as well as much of northern Yemen at the end of 2014.
In recent months, insurgents have also stepped up missile and drone fire at Saudi Arabia, regularly targeting the oil infrastructure of the leading crude exporter.
Despite coalition bombing, the Houthis rejected a Saudi ceasefire proposal as the United Nations condemned escalating fighting around Marib, following in Washington’s footsteps.
“Aid alone will not end the conflict. We can only end the humanitarian crisis in Yemen by ending the war,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a virtual conference in donors in early March.
“The first necessary step is to put an end to the offensive against Marib (…) and to join the Saudis and the government of Yemen in acting constructively in favor of peace,” he added.
The conflict, triggered in 2014 by a rebel offensive, has killed tens of thousands of people, according to NGOs, and pushed millions more to the brink of famine and dead.
