GENEVA — Escalating hostilities in Yemen have displaced over 130,000 people since the beginning of September, further straining a humanitarian crisis, the UN Refugee Agency reported Tuesday.
Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesperson, said fighting is expanding across multiple front lines. The increase in displacement follows an advance by Iran-backed Houthi fighters down Yemen's western coast toward the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, where they have clashed with Saudi-backed Yemeni Government forces.
The city of Taiz, in southwestern Yemen, accounts for over 60 percent of the total displacement. Many families in the Taiz governorate cannot reach safer areas due to ongoing fighting, blocked roads and lack of transportation fuel.
Displacement is also occurring in Al Jawf, Marib and Hudaydah governorates. The vast majority of those displaced are women and children, many of whom have been forced to flee their homes multiple times.
Before this escalation, Yemen had more than 5.2 million internally displaced people. The country has endured over a decade of conflict and economic collapse, leaving an estimated 22 million people—more than half of Yemen's population—in need of humanitarian assistance.
The crisis is also driving refugee flows across the region. More than 3,000 civilians have arrived in Djibouti fleeing clashes, with hundreds more landing in Somaliland and Puntland. UNHCR expects over 10,000 arrivals in Djibouti as sea conditions improve by mid-October.
UNHCR's Djibouti operation currently operates with only 15 percent of its required funding. In Yemen, the agency had received $34 million of the $194 million needed for 2026, before the latest surge in displacement began.
