The number of people forcibly displaced by the military escalation in Yemen has risen to 180,513, comprising 27,413 families across 10 governorates, according to a government report updated to 23 September. Meanwhile, more than 3,000 people have crossed the Red Sea to Djibouti, as risks to children have worsened because of fighting, malnutrition and disruptions to education and health services.
Displacement is particularly concentrated in the governorates of Taiz, Lahj, Hudaydah, Aden and Abyan, after fighting forced thousands of families to leave their homes in search of safety. The intensity of fighting along the western coast in recent weeks has also driven some families to undertake sea journeys to Djibouti, amid growing shortages of shelter, food, drinking water, healthcare and protection services.
Taiz receives the largest number of displaced people
The Executive Unit said the sudden and forced nature of the displacement had prevented most families from securing their basic needs before leaving their areas. It added that host communities, already operating with limited resources, were facing additional pressure as the number of new arrivals and their need for urgent services increased.
The government report identified the main needs as emergency shelter, food, drinking water, sanitation, healthcare and protection. It called on local authorities, humanitarian organisations and donors to expand the response and provide life-saving assistance, including food baskets, cash support, and water and health services.
Displacement estimates vary between agencies
International Organization for Migration data provide another estimate of displacement linked to the escalation along the western coast. An update to its Displacement Tracking Matrix, issued on 22 September, recorded about 133,494 people leaving their areas between 1 August and 22 September.
The total number of people whose displacement the organisation had recorded since the escalation began in June reached about 134,550, equivalent to approximately 22,425 families. Taiz hosted about 75,180 displaced people, followed by Lahj with 34,446 and Aden with 10,920, while the remaining displaced people were spread across Hudaydah, Abyan, Hadramout and Ma’rib.
Estimates by the relevant agencies do not fully match because of differences in the periods covered by monitoring operations, each agency’s geographical scope and the methodology used to collect data, as well as varying access to affected areas. Flight has also extended beyond Yemen as fighting continues.
Thousands of Yemenis cross into Djibouti
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 3,000 people had arrived in Djibouti after leaving Yemen, with women and children accounting for about 60% of the arrivals. The agency said those fleeing were crossing the Bab el-Mandeb strait in small boats on perilous sea journeys.
Djiboutian authorities and their partners, meanwhile, are preparing for the possible arrival of more people if the fighting continues to spread. The agency estimates that more than 130,000 people have fled their homes inside Yemen since the beginning of September, as refugees continue to arrive in Djibouti.
The humanitarian response on both sides of the sea needs additional funding to cover registration and reception operations and provide protection, shelter and basic assistance, amid limited resources for humanitarian actors. Children are bearing a large share of the escalation’s consequences.
Children pay the price of escalating violence
UNICEF said on Friday, 25 September, that about 130,000 people, including 71,000 children, had been forced to flee during the past three weeks, noting that most displaced people were concentrated in Taiz governorate. According to UNICEF’s update, 15 children were killed and 14 others injured, while 3 children have remained missing since 3 September.
The escalation also led to the closure of 243 schools or the suspension of classes, affecting more than 137,000 students, while services at 26 health facilities supported by the organisation were disrupted. Alongside the risks of displacement, children’s loss of access to education and difficulties reaching healthcare, UNICEF recorded a rise in cases of acute malnutrition.
The organisation’s representative in Yemen, Achim Ayer, said mobile nutrition teams had screened about 2,900 children in areas they had been able to reach in recent weeks, finding that more than a quarter were suffering from acute malnutrition. Ayer added that about 200 of the screened children were classified as suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
UNICEF stressed that the results of these screenings provided only a partial picture of the situation across Yemen because they were based on areas its teams had been able to reach. The organisation estimates that about 2.2 million children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition during 2026, including more than half a million facing severe acute malnutrition.
The continuation of fighting is obstructing families’ access to health facilities and malnutrition treatment services, increasing the risks faced by affected children. The effects of displacement overlap with families losing their homes and sources of income, while host communities receive growing numbers beyond their limited capacity.
At the same time, children face the risks of injury or disappearance, malnutrition, disruption to education and being unable to obtain essential health services. Humanitarian agencies warn that continued fighting could drive further population movements within Yemen and across its borders.
Urgent priorities centre on providing shelter, food, water, sanitation, healthcare and protection, alongside continuing malnutrition treatment programmes, returning children to education and ensuring that aid reaches affected areas without impediment.
