Yemenis flee Saudi aggression to Horn of Africa

The ongoing Saudi airstrikes against Yemen have reportedly forced Yemeni people to seek refuge in the Horn of Africa region where they describe the Saudi aggression as "terrifying."

According to the United Nations, at least 344 Yemenis have sought refuge in Djibouti, a key port for the Horn of Africa, as Saudi Arabia keeps pounding Yemen.

"We came on small boats, our own boats. Whole families came - 30 families with 200 people,"  said Murisala Mohamed Ahmed, a community leader from Yemen’s Bab al-Mandeb region, after his arrival in Djibouti.

“Suddenly the planes came and airstrikes hit,”he said, adding, “The military positions were near, and we feared for the children.... We had to come to Djibouti.”

Saudi Arabia’s pounding of Yemen entered its 20th day on Tuesday. In the latest airstrikes in the day, Saudi warplanes targeted areas in the provinces of Bayda, Sana’a, Shabwa and Ad Dali, killing and wounding a number of people, including women and children.

“We could see airstrikes. It was terrifying,” said Abdallah Mourad Abdo, a journalism student from Yemen’s major southern port city of Aden.

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to the former fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Shahira Shehbaz, a university student from Aden, said, “I love my country, I do not want to leave it but the situation is terrible. We just ran away from there by the boat.”

Frederic Van Hamme, the spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Djibouti, has said that many refugees from Yemen have arrived in the country, bringing with them “terrible stories linked to war.”

“It is a big pressure for a small country like Djibouti to receive a large number of refugees,” he added.

The humanitarian situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating. Many international aid organizations have sought clearances to dispatch medical and other humanitarian supplies by air and sea to civilians in need.

Colonel Sharaf Luqman, the spokesman for Yemen’s armed forces and Popular Committees, said on Monday that civilians and Yemeni infrastructure have been the target of the Saudi aggression against his country, adding, “Saudi Arabia is the international supporter of terrorism.”

Close to 2,600 people have been killed in the Saudi aggression, the spokesman said, adding that the Yemeni people will strongly respond to Riyadh’s war.

IA/HSN/SS

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