Tens of thousands of Ethiopian migrants are being deported from Saudi Arabia. They tell of being detained for months in miserable conditions. At home, they face an uncertain future.
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.
Almost 5,000 Ethiopian migrants are stuck in Yemen while awaiting a chance to return home safely. This week about 300 of them are scheduled to leave Aden for Addis Abeba on two humanitarian flights run by 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.
The UN migration agency IOM says the death toll has risen to 42 after a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti. Sixteen children were among the dead.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have admitted that their forces had caused a blaze killing 45 people at a migrant center earlier in March. More than a dozen soldiers and officials will be tried in court.
People seeking to find work in oil-rich Gulf states have been killed in a devastating fire at a Yemeni migrant detention center.
The African Migration Observatory was inaugurated at the end of December 2020 and will begin work in February 2021. One of its main aims is to collect information to establish better migratory policies and invite a more balanced view of the topic on the continent.
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.
Restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 in East and Central Africa have left large numbers of migrants stranded. Human rights and refugee groups say the borders should be reopened for asylum seekers.
Over the past year, Saudi authorities have reportedly arrested over 50,000 migrants without papers. Almost all of them hailed from Yemen or Ethiopia.