OMM Redaksiyası
More than 3,000 Yemenis have arrived at a refugee camp in Djibouti in recent days after fleeing an escalation in fighting between the Houthi movement and Saudi-backed pro-government forces, according to the BBC.
The refugees crossed the Bab al-Mandab strait by boat before travelling by truck and on foot to Markazi camp in Obock, northern Djibouti. The facility is jointly administered by the Djiboutian government and the United Nations.
Families flee air strikes and missile attacks
Ibrahim Issa, a fisherman from the Yemeni coastal town of Dhubab, said he escaped with his family aboard his boat and brought several goats with him. He said the sound of aircraft had terrified his children.
“When the sound of the planes starts, and the kids hear the planes, they begin shouting and screaming,” Issa said. “That is why we fled, to save them.”
The UN estimates that more than 120,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the latest surge in violence along the country’s Red Sea coast. Many families arrived with only the clothes they were wearing, while others carried small bundles of belongings.
The Houthis advanced rapidly down the coast this month towards Bab al-Mandab, a strategic maritime passage linking the southern Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s internationally recognised government, responded with hundreds of air strikes along the coastal plain.
The Houthis have also launched hundreds of drones and missiles towards cities and infrastructure in south-western Saudi Arabia.
“We don’t care which side it is that’s attacking. It’s the bombs falling all around us that have caused us to flee,” refugees told the BBC.
Djibouti hosts refugees as war continues
Djibouti, a small country across the water from Yemen, has said it will not become involved in the conflict. It is nevertheless home to major military facilities operated by the United States and China.
Qassim Abraham Abssy, a former fisherman whose identity card says he is 100 years old, said aircraft and explosions had forced his family to leave Yemen.
“We don’t know which side they are from. They are bombing everywhere,” he said.
Mohammed Abdullarim, a 63-year-old former tour guide from Aden, has lived in the camp since fleeing Yemen in 2015. He said many residents were in poor conditions and appealed to non-governmental organisations and the Djiboutian government to help them.
Yemen’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions since 2014. A fragile UN-brokered truce between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis agreed in 2022 has broken down in recent months, with both sides exchanging missiles, drones and air strikes.
Residents at Markazi camp said they would return if peace came back to Yemen. Aisha Abdulkadir Mohammed said safety, food, water and education were needed for the country’s children.
“We just fled with our clothes and left everything behind, because in Yemen there is no peace,” she said.
