Yemen Families Risk Deadly Sea Crossing as Djibouti Struggles to Shelter Thousands

UNHCR’s Djibouti operation is only 15 per cent funded and urgently needs an estimated $5.1 million for reception, registration, protection and essential services for arrivals from Yemen.

Nearly 3,000 people fleeing escalating violence in Yemen have reached Djibouti in less than a week, crossing the dangerous Bab el-Mandeb Strait in small boats after bombardment, shelling and gunfire drove them from their homes. Their arrival is stretching a refugee response already short of money and space, with UNHCR warning that shelter, protection and essential services could be overwhelmed without urgent international support.

Families Flee With Children and Few Belongings

Boats continue to reach Obock, Khor Angar, Moulhoule and Godoria, carrying people who describe leaving in fear for their lives. Mothers gathered their children and whatever belongings they could carry before heading for the coast, and some families had to leave relatives behind. Women and children make up more than half of the Yemeni refugees reaching Djibouti; reports suggest thousands more remain stranded in Yemen because insecurity and shortages of boat fuel prevent them from escaping.

For many new arrivals, this is a painful return to displacement after fleeing Yemen during the 2015 crisis and going home when they believed conditions were safe. Refugees arriving around Obock are being taken from coastal entry points to Markazi refugee village for registration, assistance and access to national services. Djiboutian households and the established Yemeni refugee community are sharing their limited resources, with around 270 people staying with host families.

Shelter and Schools Face Mounting Pressure

Markazi was designed for 5,000 refugees and already housed more than 2,700 Yemenis and 1,500 Eritreans before the latest influx. The government, UNHCR and partners are preparing for at least 10,000 new arrivals, placing growing demands on shelter, water, sanitation, health care and education. Efforts are underway to enrol newly arrived children in the village's schools, but existing classrooms cannot accommodate everyone, and overcrowding could increase the risk of scabies and diarrhoeal disease.

UNHCR and partners are providing temporary shelter, transport, relief items, food, water and health care, alongside support for government reception, registration and protection work through Djibouti's national refugee authority. Djibouti already hosts around 36,000 refugees, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia, leaving the latest arrivals dependent on services that were stretched before this emergency and communities whose capacity to help is rapidly diminishing.

Displacement Spreads as Funding Falls Short

Authorities in Somaliland and Puntland have reported hundreds of arrivals from Yemen, including Yemeni refugees and Somali refugees returning home. El Niño-related sea conditions are currently restricting crossings, but those conditions are expected to ease from mid-October, potentially allowing more people to travel if insecurity persists. UNHCR and partners are monitoring movements across the Gulf of Aden and preparing for a possible increase in arrivals.

Inside Yemen, intensifying fighting, particularly along the western coast, has already uprooted more than 100,000 people, with displacement reported across Al Hodeidah, Ta'iz, Lahj, Aden, Abyan, Marib, Al Dhaleh and Shabwah. Insecurity and access restrictions are making it harder for aid workers to reach families, increasing the likelihood of further displacement within the country and across its borders unless humanitarian access and support improve.

UNHCR's Djibouti operation is only 15 per cent funded and urgently needs an estimated $5.1 million for reception, registration, protection and essential services for arrivals from Yemen. Its operations inside Yemen are just 18 per cent funded, with an additional $14 million required for shelter, relief items and support to manage sites hosting newly displaced families. The agency is calling for immediate international assistance as growing displacement threatens to overwhelm the protection and help available to people forced from their homes.