Yemen fuel shortage slows escape to Djibouti as fighting displaces thousands
A fuel shortage in Yemen is slowing the movement of people trying to flee the country’s escalating fighting and reach safety in Djibouti across the Red Sea, even as the UN migration agency has warned that more Yemenis are ready to make the crossing by boat.
More than 2,000 Yemenis are currently in Djibouti, where the government and the International Organisation for Migration are providing food and shelter. The expected rise in arrivals has raised concerns that the small Horn of Africa nation could come under growing pressure if the flow of people picks up.
Yemen’s internationally recognised government and Saudi Arabia have been battling the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels for 12 years. The recent escalation has ended a ceasefire that had largely halted the civil war across Yemen since 2022. The Houthis stayed on the sidelines during the initial heavy phase of the Iran war, but in July they resumed attacks on Saudi Arabia and declared a blockade against the oil giant. The number of people fleeing the fighting is rising sharply, with nearly 94,000 already displaced.
Frantz Celestin, the IOM’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said arrivals had slowed because of the fuel shortage, but warned that more people were expected to attempt the dangerous crossing. “We expect more to come,” he told The Associated Press on Monday. “What we were told is that there are a lot of people who are willing and ready to come. They simply don’t have fuel to make the journey. There’s a fuel shortage in Yemen that may explain the lull that we’ve seen today.”
Celestin said the prospect of more arrivals was a concern for Djibouti’s capacity. “When you have that many people come in a short amount of time, it’s bound to overwhelm the system,” he said. “But so far, they (Djibouti) are managing it quite well. But there may be a time, if they continue to come, when they may overwhelm the capacity of the country to house and accommodate all of them.” He added that the arrivals were putting extra pressure on communities and called for more international support, including additional tents and medical services.
Djibouti’s Finance Minister Ilyas M Dawaleh said the situation was “becoming increasingly difficult for our country, despite our unwavering commitment to humanitarian assistance”. “We cannot allow those who have sought refuge among us to suffer. I am proud of my fellow Djiboutians for their collective mobilisation and their remarkable solidarity with our Yemeni brothers and sisters,” he wrote in a post on X. Dawaleh also praised residents of Obock, a coastal town in northern Djibouti that has been on the front line of the humanitarian response.
Sandrine Desamours, the UNHCR representative in Djibouti, said the humanitarian response was already facing funding constraints and was being stretched by the influx. She warned that some Yemenis could move onward to Somalia, which is dealing with its own humanitarian crisis. She said that while the Markazi refugee camp has room for around another 5,000 refugees, “we are preparing for more than 10,000 arrivals”. She added: “An overwhelming number are children and adolescents, and UNHCR has been working with the government to integrate them into existing, crowded schools. We need support before space, water, shelter and essential services run out.”
Djibouti lies across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, making it one of the nearest places of refuge for people fleeing the conflict. On Monday, the Houthi-run Yemen Petroleum Company said the recent rise in local fuel prices was driven by higher global oil prices and import costs, blaming the US-Iran war, international sanctions and what it described as a Saudi blockade imposed when Yemen’s civil war began 12 years ago. With more people said to be ready to leave but unable to travel because of the fuel shortage, aid agencies and Djibouti’s authorities are preparing for a possible further increase in arrivals.
