Saudi villages evacuated on Yemen violence

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GENEVA (Reuters) - Some 240 villages in Saudi Arabia have been evacuated and scores of schools closed due to fighting which has now spilt over from Yemen, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, citing local contacts.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, launched an offensive last week after Yemeni rebels seized Saudi territory along the mountainous border from which they said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to use to attack their positions.

"Fighting has now spilt into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed," Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

The information came from UNICEF's contacts on the ground, a spokeswoman said in Geneva, giving no further details.

A Saudi government adviser said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia is using air power and artillery to enforce a 10 km (six mile) deep buffer zone inside Yemen to keep the Shi'ite rebels away from its southwestern border.

Fighting between Yemeni troops and Houthi rebels, who say Yemen's Zaidi Shi'ite minority suffers discrimination and neglect, has flared on and off since 2004 in the northern province of Saada.

UNICEF voiced deep concern at the escalation of the conflict in north Yemen, where the United Nations now says 175,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

More than 15,000 are staying in al-Mazraq camp in Hajjah province, the population of which has doubled in the past month, according to the agency.

"Deaths have been recorded among children in the camp as malnutrition, already a chronic problem in Yemen, is reaching alarming levels," Kaag said. More than 600 children in the camp are being treated for severe acute malnutrition, she said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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