Aid organization Oxfam has highlighted in a new report a dramatic increase in famine in areas severely affected by climate change. Global warming is bringing more extreme weather events such as droughts, hurricanes and floods to some of the poorest parts of the planet, which could fuel new migration patterns.
There are more than 6 million migrants and refugees in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, according to UN migration agency IOM. Just over 50% of them are women and girls. Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia all host more than one million foreign citizens. More than 10 million people in the region have been internally displaced.
In Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, millions of children face extreme food scarcity and lack clean drinking water, according to UNICEF. The Horn of Africa is currently facing its worst drought in decades.
Dozens of migrants from Ethiopia were flown home on Tuesday from Yemen. This was the first repatriation flight from the war-torn nation since 2019, according to the IOM.
A boat thought to have been carrying between 160 and 200 people overturned at the weekend off the coast of Yemen. The bodies of 25 migrants have already been recovered and as many as 175 migrants are still missing.
Restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 impacted more than 300,000 people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa last year, a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) found. Meanwhile, the number of migrant crossing to Yemen dramatically decreased in 2020.
At least 39 people have died after their boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti in East Africa. The UN migration agency IOM said 16 of the victims were children.
At least 20 migrants died on Wednesday after smugglers threw them overboard during a voyage from Djibouti to Yemen, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It's the third such incident in the Gulf of Aden in six months.
Although hundreds of thousands of Africans are still choosing to migrate along the so-called "Eastern Route" between the Horn of Africa and the Gulf States via Yemen, a growing number are giving up on their dream and going back home. A new report by IOM Nairobi found that many migrants who set off were largely unaware of the migration risks prior to departure.
The IOM said on Sunday that there are at least "8 migrants dead and 12 are missing at sea" after being forced off a boat by smugglers off the coast of Djibouti. The migrants were traveling from Yemen, the UN organization added.
52 people rescued from the Mediterranean on Saturday remain stranded on a livestock transport ship, MV Talia. Both Italy and Malta have denied them permission to disembark.
Lebanon is providing temporary shelter for a group of Ethiopian domestic workers abandoned by their employers. It will repatriate some of them, but COVID-19 quarantine measures mean the pressures of returning home are likely to be even greater.