Middle East: IRIN-ME Weekly Round-up 271 for 26 February - 4 March 2010

	humanitarian news and analysis UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Table of contents 1. YEMEN: Saada schools reopen 2. SYRIA: The road to third country resettlement for Iraqi refugees 3. PHOTO GALLERY: Mud brick houses in Gaza 4. SYRIA: Severe food shortages in parched eastern region 5. YEMEN: Saada governor calls for help with new IDP database YEMEN: Saada schools reopen SANAA, 28 February 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of schools in the northern Yemeni province of Saada have reopened after five months of closure following an 11 February ceasefire between Yemen's army and Houthi-led Shia rebels, according to local officials. full report SYRIA: The road to third country resettlement for Iraqi refugees DAMASCUS, 1 March 2010 (IRIN) - Only a tiny fraction of the estimated two million Iraqi refugees and asylum-seekers in the Middle East end up being resettled in a third country. Why is this, and how does the system work? full report PHOTO GALLERY: Mud brick houses in Gaza GAZA CITY, 2 March 2010 (IRIN) - More than 4,036 houses in the Gaza Strip were totally destroyed or beyond repair in the aftermath of Israel?s 23-day conflict with Hamas from 27 December 2008 to 17 January 2009, according to an April 2009 UNRWA and UN Development Programme assessment. full report SYRIA: Severe food shortages in parched eastern region DAMASCUS, 3 March 2010 (IRIN) - Thousands of people have fled drought-affected eastern Syria and those that remain are struggling to survive on limited food stocks, according to a UN report released at the end of February. full report YEMEN: Saada governor calls for help with new IDP database SANAA, 4 March 2010 (IRIN) - Saada Governor Taha Abdullah Hajer has urged aid agencies to help develop an information database on the tens of thousands of people displaced by intermittent fighting between the Yemeni army and Houthi-led Shia rebels in northern Yemen since 2004. full report

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

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