Djibouti is accommodating journeys from Ethiopia and Yemen while thousands of migrants remain stranded inside the country, IOM said in an October 6 briefing. Alexandre Coissac, the agency’s chief in Djibouti, said it had seen no increase in movements from Ethiopia. Its response nevertheless faces several demands at once: providing basic assistance along migration routes, helping people returning from Yemen and supporting refugees arriving from the other shore.
From September 10 to the briefing date, IOM recorded more than 20,000 incoming migrant movements from Ethiopia and 539 Ethiopian migrants returning from Yemen. Coissac also reported more than 3,700 Yemeni refugees arriving during the preceding three weeks. Incoming journeys, returns and refugee reception each bring people to Djibouti’s services through a different route, with food, water, medical care and protection among the needs the agencies must meet.
Between September 20 and 30, IOM observed more than 3,000 stranded migrants. Coissac described dehydration, exhaustion, food and water shortages, and exposure to exploitation and violence. Stranding leaves people dependent on help while their intended journey is interrupted. Reaching them becomes more difficult when routes change or travellers move away from the crossing points around which assistance has been organised.
Coissac said most Ethiopian movements were driven by economic considerations, alongside fear about the country’s continuing situation. Many travellers seeking a better life remained unaware of conditions in Yemen. Their plans could therefore bring them towards a country from which other families were fleeing, with the dangers of the onward route entering the same humanitarian response as the needs of those already arriving in Djibouti.
The journeys run in more than one direction. People arriving from Ethiopia may be seeking to continue through Yemen towards the Gulf, while Ethiopians returning from Yemen are travelling away from it. Yemeni refugees arriving in Djibouti have another protection need. Water and emergency care can be necessary across all these groups, while decisions about asylum, onward movement and return concern different people and different circumstances.
Reaching people along changing routes
IOM said it was providing food and water and helping with voluntary returns. Coissac warned that migrants were increasingly using secondary routes, which made humanitarian access more difficult. That is a practical constraint: assistance organised around established crossing points can miss people who move elsewhere. The briefing credited Djiboutian authorities with a rapid response and called for stronger international support, including support for communities hosting those who arrive.
IOM’s regional response appeal covers the Eastern Route linking the Horn, Yemen and Gulf destinations. Agencies use route monitoring to organise protection and assistance around places where people enter, return or become stranded. As travel changes direction, the response must connect mobile assistance with centres able to offer continuing care. Djiboutian authorities and host communities remain part of that work, alongside international organisations supporting the corridor.
Japan announced $10 million in emergency assistance on October 6, dividing the funding between Yemen and Djibouti. UNHCR receives $2 million for protection and assistance in Djibouti. In Yemen, $3 million goes through WFP for food, $3 million through the ICRC for health, water and sanitation, and $2 million through IOM for shelter and essential household items. The allocation supports several services across both shores.
The Japanese grant adds financing to a response that has already developed through international appeals and reception plans. Agencies must connect that support with shelter, supplies and protection at the places where people arrive. Host communities also face demands on ordinary services, making continued international assistance important as new movements bring additional households and travellers to the same coastal areas.
Inside Yemen, IOM’s October 7 account recorded 201,217 displaced people and a response plan only 20% funded. Families leaving the country reach another set of reception services, while migrants seeking to travel through it encounter the conflict from a different direction. Aid agencies must respond at the place where each group needs help, connecting work in Yemen with assistance on the African shore.
The Bab al-Mandab security picture includes commercial shipping alongside movement between its shores. Migration assistance has its own purpose within that wider setting: protecting people who may lack water, shelter or a safe route onwards. A maritime warning or an aviation advisory does not itself tell humanitarian agencies where stranded families can be reached. That requires the route observations and local response described by IOM.
The corridor’s risks became immediate off Obock when a boat travelling towards Yemen capsized during the night of October 8–9. IOM reported 139 deaths, 84 people missing and 82 survivors on October 11, as described in PUNT NEWS’s shipwreck report. The disaster adds medical care, recovery and support for grieving families to the work already underway. Djibouti’s coastal response must sustain that emergency assistance while continuing to reach people arriving, returning or stranded along the route.