Executive Summary
This is the 8th Report of the Task Force on Population Movement (TFPM). The purpose of each report is to provide an up-to-date and accurate snapshot on displaced populations, their locations and displacement trends across Yemen.
The TFPM was established in April 2015 in response to the events of March 2015, which marked the commencement of international armed conflict in Yemen that has resulted in a major humanitarian crisis with the occurrence of mass displacement.
Released a year on from the start of international conflict, the 8th report reaffirms the continuation of the humanitarian impact of the conflict and validates a total number of 2,755,916 internally displaced persons (IDPs), displaced due to the current conflict in Yemen, as compared to 2,430,178 IDPs in the 7th report (published in March 2016). This represents an increase in the overall displaced population since the last report with increases observed in pockets of Yemen such as Amanat Al Asimah, Taizz, and Al Hudaydah. Despite this, the level of displacement has remained relatively stable in other areas, primarily the south, as reported in the 7th report. The recently validated increase of 325,738 IDPs (an increase of 13% from the 7th report) reflects the TFPM’s findings that while further displacement continues to decrease in the south, it is continuing to be documented in the north. Furthermore, the increase in displacement that is observed in this report is marked by two key considerations:
The relative stability of the number of IDPs that was noted in the 6th and 7th reports is likely to fluctuate with momentum towards return increasing and then slowing and displacement continuing.
The statistics for Sa’ada used in the 7th report are not fully verified with some data having to be carried over from previous TFPM reports. This is due to the continuing difficulties of conducting displacement tracking in Sa’ada and, in consequence, updated data is not available in respect of 6 districts within the governorate. The TFPM attempted to obtain updated statistics without success and will therefore seek to address the statistics in Sa’ada in the 9th report.
The TFPM, with its operational partners, continues to harmonize data collection and establish and implement a unified methodology for dedicated displacement tracking. In consequence, the number of districts covered by the TFPM has increased to 301 (compared to 290 districts covered in the 7th report) of the 333 districts of Yemen with over 1,418 data updates received for the 8th report. In addition, the system of confidence rating has continued to have a positive impact in the data collection for the 8th report. 81 per cent of data for the 8th report falls into the categories of Good and Medium of the data confidence level. There is, however, an increase in the data that is carried over from previous reports, especially the 7th and 6th reports (41%), but this is owing to the fact that the TFPM is aiming to publish reports on a monthly cycle as opposed to bi-monthly cycle that was in place up to the publication of the 7th report .