About 1,400 refugees from Yemen arrive in Djibouti in one day
About 1,400 people who fled Yemen arrived in Djibouti within 24 hours. Djibouti’s Minister of Economy and Finance, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, reported this on platform X amid tighter Houthi control over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Al Jazeera English reports.
Arrivals in Obock
In a separate post published on Friday, Dawaleh said that 500 refugees had arrived in the coastal city of Obock. They included women and children. According to him, the people were rescued at sea after their boats ran out of fuel while crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Safia Ibrahim, humanitarian response coordinator for the International Organization for Migration, told AFP that members of vulnerable groups, including women and children, had reached the coast of Obock. She added that more people are expected to arrive in the coming days.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Population displacement in Yemen
The International Organization for Migration warned on Friday that at least 46,000 people had been displaced in Yemen after fighting escalated last week. The organization’s Director General, Amy Pope, said that some families are being forced to leave their homes for a second or third time, while access to life-saving assistance is becoming more difficult due to the spread of hostilities.
According to Al Jazeera, the Houthis captured the Red Sea port city of Mocha on Thursday and then took control of the coast and islands near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The offensive forced thousands of families to leave their homes; according to the outlet, entire villages were emptied in the areas of Maqbanah, Jabal Habashi and Al-Ma'afer.
Obock is located about 20 kilometres from the Yemeni coast and has for several years been one of the main arrival points for people seeking refuge from the war in Yemen. According to the UN Refugee Agency, as of March 2026, more than 36,000 refugees and asylum seekers were registered in Djibouti, mainly from Somalia, Ethiopia and Yemen.
