🔻Djibouti: 1,400 people fled Yemen in 24 hours

🔻Djibouti’s Minister of Economy and Finance says that, following clashes between the Yemeni government forces and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, around 1,400 people have fled from Yemen to Djibouti in just 24 hours.

Elias Moussa Dawale wrote on the X network that these people reached Djibouti by crossing the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Safia Ibrahim, the humanitarian affairs coordinator at the International Organization for Migration, also told Agence France-Presse that women and children, among other vulnerable groups, are among those who have arrived on the shores of Obock in Djibouti, and that more people are expected to enter the country in the coming days.

According to UN figures, since July at least 76,000 people have been displaced inside Yemen, and the number of displaced persons as a result of the renewed fighting over the past week has increased fourfold.

Last week, the Houthis launched a new operation against Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and targeted areas around the Bab al-Mandab Strait. In recent days, they advanced along the coast and on Thursday captured the port city of Mocha.

Since then, the Houthis have taken control of Yemen’s coasts and islands in the Red Sea, and on Friday they also increased their control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The strait is one of the important global shipping routes for access to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

After Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, Bab al-Mandab has become especially more important for the export of Saudi oil.

In the recent fighting, hundreds of personnel from both sides have been killed.