AL-BIREEN CAMP, Yemen — A renewed bombardment has forced 115,000 people to flee their homes this week as Yemen's civil war reignited, according to aid agencies. The displacement follows a rapid advance by the Iran-backed Houthi group, which has seized the port city of Mocha and a southern stretch of Yemen's Red Sea coast.
The conflict, which largely paused after a 2022 truce, has escalated again as a spillover from the wider war between Iran and the United States. Families, many already displaced by previous fighting, are now seeking shelter in government-held areas and across the sea in Djibouti.
Rawya Hassan, 48, fled her camp in Taiz province with her seven children, leaving animals and other belongings behind. "We are under terror, under the rockets, under the missiles," Hassan said while making bread in a makeshift clay oven at the al-Bireen camp.
Hassan's family had been forced from their original village of al-Tuweir eight years ago due to fighting. They had found shelter in a camp in the nearby al-Kadha district. Now, even al-Kadha is unsafe.
"We escaped barefoot. We didn't even know where our children were. We had nothing with us, no covers, no mattresses, no food, no drink, nothing," Hassan said, recounting shells falling and warplanes or drones circling overhead during their flight.
Hassan's older sister, Rawda, was with the children. They reunited the next day at al-Bireen camp after a long walk. The family is now entirely dependent on aid provided at the camp.
Rawda, with an orange scarf wrapped around her head, expressed uncertainty about their future. The al-Bireen camp is situated in an area of steep, dry foothills, with a dirt path leading into the hills and a road connecting the Houthi-held coastline to another frontline at the city of Taiz.
Larger numbers of people have fled along the Indian Ocean coastline from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, located at the mouth of the Red Sea, towards Aden.
In Aden, families arrived at camps pitched in windswept sand, where white tents stand in rows. Um Mohammed, whose family escaped from Mocha during the Houthi advance last week, described the harsh conditions. Her family had already suffered a significant loss, with her son killed earlier in the war. Upon reaching al-Firdaws camp, they received only thin mattresses and old blankets for their tent. Aid workers were seen distributing supplies, with small children playing nearby and women hauling large buckets of water from tanks delivered by pick-up truck.
