More than 120,000 Yemenis have been displaced by a sudden surge in fighting along Yemen's Red Sea coast, according to UN estimates, as thousands make desperate crossings by boat to reach refugee camps in Djibouti.
In just the last few days, more than 3,000 refugees have arrived at Markazi camp in Obock, northern Djibouti, a facility jointly administered by the Djiboutian government and the United Nations. Many arrived as entire families, some carrying small bundles of possessions, others in nothing but the clothes they left in.
The camp sits across the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait from Yemen. After crossing the water by boat, refugees have made their way to the site by truck and on foot.
Ibrahim Issa, 50, is from the Yemeni coastal town of Dhubab, located on the front lines of the war between the Houthis and Saudi-backed pro-government forces. As a fisherman, he already owned a boat large enough to carry his family to safety. He brought several of the family's goats as well.
"How could I just sit there when my kids are screaming and shaking in terror?" he said. "When the sound of the planes start, and the kids hear the planes, they begin shouting and screaming. As parents it is our responsibility, what can you do when you see this? That is why we fled, to save them."
This month, the Houthis — who had already seized most of Yemen's populated areas in previous years — made a rapid advance down the country's coast toward Bab al-Mandab, the strategic maritime chokepoint where the southern Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean.
Saudi Arabia, which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government, has responded with hundreds of air strikes along the flat coastal plain where Houthi forces are now entrenching. The Houthis, in turn, have launched hundreds of drones and missiles at cities and infrastructure in south-western Saudi Arabia.
Refugees at the camp said they did not distinguish between the warring parties when describing their reasons for fleeing.
"We don't care which side it is that's attacking," was a sentiment repeated by multiple people at the camp. "It's the bombs falling all around us that have caused us to flee."
Among those at Markazi camp is Qassim Abraham Abssy, a former fisherman whose identity card lists his age as 100. "What led us to come here?" he said. "It was the planes. The sounds of the planes, boom! That's what made us flee, for the sake of our children. It burns our hearts. We don't know which side they are from. They are bombing everywhere, because the Houthis are everywhere, in the mountains, in the roads. A plane comes, bombs everywhere."
Also at the camp is Mohammed Abdullarim, 63, a former tour guide from Aden who has been at Markazi since 2015. He fled to Djibouti shortly after fighting first broke out between the Houthis and the government of then-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. He is old enough to have been born when Aden was still a British protectorate.
As he spoke about the situation in his country, he turned away, visibly overcome with emotion.
Djibouti, a small former French colony, has made clear it has no intention of becoming involved in the Yemeni conflict. Nevertheless, it is one of the most militarised nations in Africa. The United States has operated a large multinational base there, Camp Lemonnier, since 2003. China also maintains a major military presence in the country — its largest on the Indian Ocean — which has recently been upgraded.
The camp is supplied with tents by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and sits in temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius.
