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Yemenis Flee by Boat to Djibouti as Red Sea Fighting Surges

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More than 120,000 Yemenis have been displaced by fighting along the Red Sea coast, with families crossing to Djibouti's Markazi camp to escape the bombs.

Ibrahim Issa, a 50-year-old fisherman from the Yemeni coastal town of Dhubab, has ended up on a tarpaulin laid over sand inside a large open-sided warehouse far from home. The building sits at Markazi camp in Obock, in northern Djibouti, and it is crowded with Yemeni families who escaped their country by boat. Issa's hometown lies directly on the front line between Yemen's Houthi movement and the Saudi-backed forces loyal to the internationally recognised government.

He left because of what the air raids were doing to his children. "When the sound of the planes start, and the kids hear the planes, they begin shouting and screaming," he said. "How could I just sit there when my kids are screaming and shaking in terror? As parents it is our responsibility... That is why we fled, to save them."

As a fisherman, Issa already had a boat big enough to carry his family out. He also loaded several of the family's goats, which now graze on scraps near the shelters, foraging among discarded gas canisters and empty bottles. Other arrivals brought far less. A few managed small bundles of belongings, and one family even carried a tall metal shisha pipe known as a "jeraak." Many stepped off the boats worn out, wearing only the clothes they had on when they left.

The families reached Markazi after crossing the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait, then travelling onward by truck and on foot. The camp is run jointly by Djibouti's government and the United Nations. In just the past few days, more than 3,000 people have arrived from Yemen, many of them entire households. The UN estimates that the recent escalation along Yemen's Red Sea coast has displaced more than 120,000 people in total.

A sudden push toward the coast

The exodus follows a rapid advance this month by the Houthis, who years ago took control of most of Yemen's populated areas. Their forces pushed swiftly down the coastline toward Bab al-Mandab, the maritime chokepoint where the southern Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden and, beyond it, the Indian Ocean. Control of that passage carries weight far beyond Yemen's shores.

Saudi Arabia, which supports the recognised Yemeni government, answered the advance with hundreds of air strikes across the flat coastal plain where Houthi fighters are now entrenching. The Houthis, in turn, have fired hundreds of drones and missiles at cities and infrastructure in south-western Saudi Arabia.

For the people now sheltering in Djibouti, the question of who is responsible for any single explosion matters little. The message from those in the camp was consistent: they do not care which side is firing. What drove them out, they said, were the bombs landing all around their homes.

A neutral host in a crowded region

Djibouti, a small former French colony, lies just across the water from Yemen and has been clear that it does not want to be drawn into the conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government. That stance sits against an unusual backdrop, because Djibouti is among the most heavily militarised countries in Africa.

The United States has operated a large multinational installation there, Camp Lemonnier, since 2003. The site was once used by the French Foreign Legion. China also maintains a significant base in the country, its biggest military foothold on the Indian Ocean, which has recently been expanded. The war across the strait has now added thousands of civilians to a nation already defined by foreign forces.

Inside Markazi, the new arrivals are beginning to settle into a life of waiting. Among those in the camp is Qassim Abraham Abssy, one more Yemeni who joined the crossing to Djibouti rather than remain under the strikes.

For Issa and the families around him, the immediate concern is not the strategic value of Bab al-Mandab or the rival bases dotting the Djiboutian coast. It is the safety of children who no longer flinch at the sound of aircraft overhead. The crossing cost them their homes and most of their possessions, but it put a stretch of sea between their families and the fighting.

Yemen war, Houthis, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti refugees, Bab al-Mandab, Markazi camp, Red Sea, Yemen displacement

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