Even following the rapid Houthi rebels takeover of the capital, Sanaa, and much of Yemen’s north in 2014 and 2015, the poorest country in the Middle East continued to find itself receiving more thousands of refugees fleeing Ethiopia and Somalia to find themselves endangered once again in another troubled zone.
They risk themselves during the treacherous journey across the Gulf of Aden, which lies between Yemen and the Horn of Africa.
Between 2014 and 2024, the UN’s International Organization for Migration documented 1,860 people dying or going missing while crossing the Gulf of Aden, including 480 who drowned.
Many African migrants who have fallen victim to the conflict in Yemen say they find themselves in conditions similar to – and in some cases worse than – those they found in the countries and regions they initially fled.
“When I made the journey across the Gulf of Aden, I never imagined I would experience more conflict,” said Raha Mahmoud, 36, who spoke to Foreign Policy by phone from the Yemeni city of Al Ghaydah. Raha Mahmoud fled Ethiopia’s war-torn Ogaden region.
Despite the bleak conditions in Yemen 90,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2023, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, exceeding the number of migrants who reached Yemen’s shores the previous year.
Despite the dire situation of many refugees in Yemen, many more are likely to make the perilous journey across the Gulf of Aden, as wars, insurgencies and the climate crisis continue to displace people across the Horn of Africa, forcing many young people to flee, unaware of the bleak conditions that await them in Yemen