The Department of Displaced Persons Refugee Camps in Yemen said on Wednesday it had registered more than 2.7 million people who had been displaced because of the war in Yemen since the start of 2015.

In a seminar organised by the Yemeni Coalition to Monitor Violations of Human Rights at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Najib Al-Saadi, the head of the unit, said they had registered more than 2.5 million internally displaced persons in Yemen and 300,000 displaced abroad.

“As of mid-May the Executive Unit registered 2,244,289 internally displaced persons in Yemen and more than 300,000 displaced persons in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Djibouti, Turkey, Malaysia, Sudan, Somalia and Jordan,” said Al-Saadi.

Read: Market bomb kills six in Yemen

Al-Saadi accused Houthi militants and their allies of forcing the Yemenis to flee after they overthrew the government of Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and incited the war against the Yemenis.

“Displacement and forced displacement began in 2004 in the province of Saada (Houthis stronghold, north of Yemen) when clashes broke out between government forces and Houthi militias. More than 400,000 displaced people have been unable to return to Saada because they feared militia retaliation which controlled the province”.

Twenty-two percent of the displaced persons are men, said Al-Saadi and 55 per cent of them are children.