What to Know About Djibouti’s Refugee Crisis
Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy
Original Source
The United Nations warns of a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in Djibouti as thousands of Yemeni refugees flee by sea, driven by intensifying Houthi attacks across the Red Sea. The widening Iranian-backed campaign threatens to destabilize the Horn of Africa and deepen the region's entanglement in Middle Eastern conflict.
Djibouti's Refugee Crisis: What to Know as Houthi Attacks Ramp Up
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Lagos-based Nosmot Gbadamosi reports from across Africa on what’s driving policy, economics, and culture in the world’s fastest-growing and youngest continent. Sign up for the latest news, expert analysis, and data insights. Delivered Wednesday.
What to Know About Djibouti’s Refugee Crisis
The widening Houthi campaign along the Red Sea is further destabilizing the region.
!Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10
*Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10*
*Nosmot Gbadamosi*
By **Nosmot Gbadamosi**, a multimedia journalist and the writer of *Foreign Policy*’s weekly Africa Brief.
!Three young children gather in front of two large, light blue plastic water storage tanks set on a stone ledge. On the right, a child in a patterned dark dress leans down to fill colorful plastic jugs from a lower spigot, while a boy in a green shirt stands beside them leaning against the tank, and a girl in a yellow dress stands nearby watching.
*Three young children gather in front of two large, light blue plastic water storage tanks set on a stone ledge. On the right, a child in a patterned dark dress leans down to fill colorful plastic jugs from a lower spigot, while a boy in a green shirt stands beside them leaning against the tank, and a girl in a yellow dress stands nearby watching.*
Yemeni children fill water buckets after crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, seen at Markazi refugee camp in Obock, Djibouti, on Sept. 20. Guirreh Moumin/AP
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September 23, 2026, 5:01 PM
Welcome to *Foreign Policy*’s Africa Brief*.*
The highlights this week: Thousands of **Yemeni refugees** flee to Djibouti amid growing Houthi attacks, Morocco holds its first **parliamentary elections** since major youth-led protests, and **fighting resurges in** **Ethiopia**’s northern Tigray region.
Welcome to *Foreign Policy*’s Africa Brief*.*
The highlights this week: Thousands of **Yemeni refugees** flee to Djibouti amid growing Houthi attacks, Morocco holds its first **parliamentary elections** since major youth-led protests, and **fighting resurges in** **Ethiopia**’s northern Tigray region.
Sign up to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday.
---
Interconnected Crises
The United Nations is warning of a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in Djibouti, as more than 3,000 Yemeni refugees have fled by boat to the Horn of Africa country in recent weeks following offensives by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea.
The U.N. refugee agency has said that continued fighting could cause this figure to spike to 10,000 people in the coming months, especially as rough sea conditions are forecast to improve after mid-October.
Djibouti sits directly across from Yemen on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden that handles approximately 12 percent of global maritime trade. The Houthi’s recent capture of Yemen’s port city of Mokha and the strategic Mayun Island (also called Perim) has now put the rebel group just 12 miles from Djibouti’s coast.
Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh has exploited his country’s location as an economic asset for decades by leasing land to foreign powers; the United States, China, Japan, and some European nations have military bases there. But Djibouti’s strategic position has increasingly become a liability as it faces rising fallout from the Iran war.
Security experts argue that the widening Houthi campaign could draw the Horn of Africa deeper into war in the Middle East and further destabilize the region. Djibouti is not the only country receiving refugees amid the conflict; hundreds of Yemenis have also fled to the Somali breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
Djibouti already hosts around 36,000 registered refugees, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia, which has strained public infrastructure and clean water access among a population of just 1.2 million. The country took in more than 15,700 Yemeni refugees in 2015, when Yemen’s civil war escalated. (Most of those who arrived then have since returned to Yemen or relocated.)
“Djibouti can no longer afford to carry a regional burden,” the country’s finance minister, Ilyas Dawaleh, wrote in *Addis Fortune* earlier this month. “A Horn of Africa left to absorb rising displacement alone is less able to secure its coastline or deny space to those who threaten shipping through the strait.”
Complicating matters, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December, a decision likely made partly in order to monitor Houthi activity across from the territory, may bring heightened insecurity to the region. Eventually, Marc Lynch wrote last week in *Foreign Policy*, it could “turbocharge Houthi ties with the Somalia-based al-Shabab terrorist group, which has been organically growing for several years, raising the risks of a transregional expansion of the war across the Horn of Africa.”
In recent months, the Houthis and al-Shabab have drastically expanded military and tactical cooperation, according to a *Wall Street Journal* report.
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Africa Brief: What to Know About Djibouti’s Refugee Crisis
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Africa Brief
Lagos-based Nosmot Gbadamosi reports from across Africa on what’s driving policy, economics, and culture in the world’s fastest-growing and youngest continent. Sign up for the latest news, expert analysis, and data insights. Delivered Wednesday.
What to Know About Djibouti’s Refugee Crisis
The widening Houthi campaign along the Red Sea is further destabilizing the region.
!Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10
*Gbadamosi-Nosmot-foreign-policy-columnist10*
*Nosmot Gbadamosi*
By **Nosmot Gbadamosi**, a multimedia journalist and the writer of *Foreign Policy*’s weekly Africa Brief.
!Three young children gather in front of two large, light blue plastic water storage tanks set on a stone ledge. On the right, a child in a patterned dark dress leans down to fill colorful plastic jugs from a lower spigot, while a boy in a green shirt stands beside them leaning against the tank, and a girl in a yellow dress stands nearby watching.
*Three young children gather in front of two large, light blue plastic water storage tanks set on a stone ledge. On the right, a child in a patterned dark dress leans down to fill colorful plastic jugs from a lower spigot, while a boy in a green shirt stands beside them leaning against the tank, and a girl in a yellow dress stands nearby watching.*
Yemeni children fill water buckets after crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Yemen, seen at Markazi refugee camp in Obock, Djibouti, on Sept. 20. Guirreh Moumin/AP
My FP: Follow topics and authors to get straight to what you like. Exclusively for FP subscribers. Subscribe Now | Log In
*
*
*
September 23, 2026, 5:01 PM
Welcome to *Foreign Policy*’s Africa Brief*.*
The highlights this week: Thousands of **Yemeni refugees** flee to Djibouti amid growing Houthi attacks, Morocco holds its first **parliamentary elections** since major youth-led protests, and **fighting resurges in** **Ethiopia**’s northern Tigray region.
Welcome to *Foreign Policy*’s Africa Brief*.*
The highlights this week: Thousands of **Yemeni refugees** flee to Djibouti amid growing Houthi attacks, Morocco holds its first **parliamentary elections** since major youth-led protests, and **fighting resurges in** **Ethiopia**’s northern Tigray region.
Sign up to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday.
---
Interconnected Crises
The United Nations is warning of a rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in Djibouti, as more than 3,000 Yemeni refugees have fled by boat to the Horn of Africa country in recent weeks following offensives by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea.
The U.N. refugee agency has said that continued fighting could cause this figure to spike to 10,000 people in the coming months, especially as rough sea conditions are forecast to improve after mid-October.
Djibouti sits directly across from Yemen on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden that handles approximately 12 percent of global maritime trade. The Houthi’s recent capture of Yemen’s port city of Mokha and the strategic Mayun Island (also called Perim) has now put the rebel group just 12 miles from Djibouti’s coast.
Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh has exploited his country’s location as an economic asset for decades by leasing land to foreign powers; the United States, China, Japan, and some European nations have military bases there. But Djibouti’s strategic position has increasingly become a liability as it faces rising fallout from the Iran war.
Security experts argue that the widening Houthi campaign could draw the Horn of Africa deeper into war in the Middle East and further destabilize the region. Djibouti is not the only country receiving refugees amid the conflict; hundreds of Yemenis have also fled to the Somali breakaway regions of Somaliland and Puntland.
Djibouti already hosts around 36,000 registered refugees, mainly from Somalia and Ethiopia, which has strained public infrastructure and clean water access among a population of just 1.2 million. The country took in more than 15,700 Yemeni refugees in 2015, when Yemen’s civil war escalated. (Most of those who arrived then have since returned to Yemen or relocated.)
“Djibouti can no longer afford to carry a regional burden,” the country’s finance minister, Ilyas Dawaleh, wrote in *Addis Fortune* earlier this month. “A Horn of Africa left to absorb rising displacement alone is less able to secure its coastline or deny space to those who threaten shipping through the strait.”
Complicating matters, Israel’s recognition of Somaliland in December, a decision likely made partly in order to monitor Houthi activity across from the territory, may bring heightened insecurity to the region. Eventually, Marc Lynch wrote last week in *Foreign Policy*, it could “turbocharge Houthi ties with the Somalia-based al-Shabab terrorist group, which has been organically growing for several years, raising the risks of a transregional expansion of the war across the Horn of Africa.”
In recent months, the Houthis and al-Shabab have drastically expanded military and tactical cooperation, according to a *Wall Street Journal* report.
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Source: Foreign Policy
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