Attack on Yemeni port would displace at least 400,000

GENEVA An attack on Yemen’s Hodeidah port would displace more than 400,000 people, the U.N. International Organization for Migration said on Friday, doubling its previous minimum estimate.

“A minimum of 400,000 people will flee the city eastwards, once Al Hudaydah is under attack,” IOM’s Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker said in a statement, using a different English spelling for the port’s name.

The U.N. has previously warned against any attack by Saudi-led coalition forces on the Houthi-held port, the aid lifeline for millions of people in desperate need of food, saying that 200,000-500,000 people could be displaced.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)