The Houthi offensive in Yemen has displaced more than 82,000 people since the beginning of September, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM), and over 3,000 of them have fled across the Gulf of Aden to Djibouti, which was already struggling with thousands of refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia.
The closest city to Yemen in Djibouti is Obock, a small port town that is only about 12 nautical miles from the coast of Yemen. During more peaceful times in Yemen, Obock was the staging ground for refugees from Africa to cross the Gulf of Aden, pass through Yemen, and seek refuge in the rich Gulf Arab states. Last week, that flow of traffic dramatically reversed, as more than 1,400 refugees from Yemen arrived in Obock on a single day.
Sources in Yemen told Al Jazeera News that entire villages along the Red Sea coast of Yemen were emptied as the Houthis advanced. Some fled to the interior of Yemen, but many followed the coast and used small boats to reach Obock. A large percentage of the Yemeni refugees flooding into Djibouti are women and children, traveling with little in the way of supplies or possessions.
The IOM said the crisis was exacerbated by the 65,000 refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia who were in Yemen, and have now been displaced again.
“Our resources are very, very, very limited and our stocks will be depleted very soon,” warned Abdusattor Esoev, IOM mission chief for Yemen.
Francesco Galtieri of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Friday that hundreds of the refugees are pregnant women, and the crisis is “growing by the hour.”
“This was a surprise, it took us by storm. First it was small numbers, around 50 a day. Then 1,000 people crossed on September 13,” UNICEF representative Ramatou Toure told The National on Monday.
Toure said the large number of pregnant women and children among the refugees means humanitarian workers are “dealing with the most vulnerable part of the population.” She noted that the Yemeni refugees coming ashore in Djibouti are often exhausted and dehydrated, while many of the children are severely malnourished. Fights over scarce food and water have been reported in the refugee camps.
Toure said UNICEF is “planning for 10,000 people in the next few months” as the refugee tide from Yemen increases. Her agency has requested $2.7 million in additional funding over the next three months to handle the crisis.
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said some refugees from Yemen “describe having to leave family members behind,” while others “have been unable to flee due to insecurity and shortages of fuel for boats.”
UNHCR noted that the main coastal refugee village in Djibouti, Markazi, was only designed to hold 5,000 people, and it was already populated with 2,700 Yemenis and 1,500 Eritreans before the new wave from Yemen began.
“Existing school facilities cannot accommodate all newly arrived children, while overcrowding could increase the risk of communicable diseases, including scabies and diarrhoeal disease,” UNHCR warned. The agency said its operation in Djibouti is “only 15% funded,” while operations in Yemen are “just 18% funded.”