So many people caught up in conflict around the world, Yemeni people do not get a chance to stay safe…..
Houthi strikes mark the end of Saudi Arabia’s Yemen ‘containment strategy’
The Houthis are better equipped for war than they were a decade ago, while Saudi Arabia now has more to lose from escalation
This handout image released by the Iran-backed Houthi forces on 7 September 2026 purportedly shows a ballistic missile strike on trucks carrying military equipment from Saudi Arabia to the al-Wadiah military camp in Yemen’s Hadhramaut province (Ansarullah Media Centre/AFP)
Published date: 14 October 2026 22:19 BST|Last update:1 day 11 hours ago
Saudi Arabia’s bid to “contain” the Houthis in Yemen while doubling down on economic growth at home is collapsing, posing one of the most serious tests for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since he rose to power, according to analysts and diplomats.
A decade ago, the crown prince led the kingdom into a war aimed at ousting the Houthis from power. The conflict turned into a quagmire for Saudi Arabia, sapping its resources and sparking widespread backlash due to its devastating bombing campaign. In the end, Saudi Arabia cut its losses and maintained an uneasy truce with the Houthis since 2022.
“This is the collapse of Saudi Arabia’s containment strategy,” Rob Geist Pinfold, an international security expert at King’s College London, told Middle East Eye.
“The way Saudi Arabia approached the Houthis in the last few years was not dissimilar to how Israel treated Hamas in Gaza before 7 October [2023]. The Saudis felt they had the Houthis where they needed them. They weren’t at the stage to reach a political solution, but they felt they had disincentivised them from escalating again.”
The conflict erupted again after Saudi Arabia bombed Sanaa airport in July to prevent a plane carrying Houthi officials from landing. MEE reported that Iranian, Syrian and Hezbollah military advisors were on board along with weapons systems.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/houthi-strikes-mark-end-saudi-arabias-yemen-containment-strategy
‘The dogs were eating their bodies’: Thousands of Yemenis flee war across the sea
Refugees arriving in Djibouti say while they can reason with forces on the ground, there is no protection against fighter jets and bombs.
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After her break for safety, Ms Mohammad has spent recent days sharing a tent with three other families at a refugee camp outside Obock.
Their tents pitched on a baking plain outside the town are like ovens during the day and the refugees complain of a lack of water and amenities.
She told the Telegraph: “The Houthis came into the village and the air attacks started almost immediately.
“The Houthis were shooting at the plane from nearby our house and the planes were bombing them.”
Her husband, Arafat Ali Mohammad, said he had seen the aftermath of one air strike that hit a house in the village, killing several inhabitants.
“The dogs were eating their bodies,” he said.
Saudi Arabia entered Yemen’s civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition in support of the internationally-recognised government.
The Royal Saudi Air Force, which is equipped with F-15, Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoons jets, has played a major part in the war supporting Yemeni government ground forces.
The Houthis have accused the Saudis of conducting hundreds of air strikes in recent weeks, including 94 against areas under their control on Friday alone.
Refugees told the Telegraph the main reason for their flight was a fear of being hit by air strikes, but they also complained of abuses by the Houthis.
Sheikh Saeed Abdeelah, aged 69, arrived 21 days ago with his wife and four daughters.
“We haven’t got a home, we haven’t got good water, we haven’t got anything here,” he said, with tears in his eyes.
“After the Houthis came, the war planes came. The Houthis told us to leave. One said to me: ‘This land is mine now.’ If you speak up, they shoot you.”
“Djibouti is a very, very good country, they are generous, but we have nothing in this camp. No school, no hospital, nothing.”
Barahona said, describing scenes of migrants who arrive “with just a bottle of water and very little else.”
For those who are able to attempt a sea crossing, it remains a potentially deadly journey; 139 bodies were recovered and 84 people were still missing after an overloaded boat carrying more than 300 people sank in the Red Sea last week, Barahona said. Others die of dehydration attempting to cross the desert on foot.
Meanwhile, the failure of the short rainy season this year has left 25 percent of Obock’s host communities at crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity, he added, and UN agencies were working “as one” under the coordination of local officials to address the crisis.
The UN Refugee Agency is helping authorities register new arrivals, the International Organization for Migration is serving 1,500 hot meals twice a day and running a migrant center that arranges voluntary returns to Ethiopia, UNICEF is helping to shore up water systems, and the World Food Programme is distributing food.
Barahona praised Djibouti for its refugee laws, which he described as being among the most generous in the world, granting freedom of movement, the right to work formally, and access to healthcare and education. But he warned that the stability of the country, in a region surrounded by conflict, should not be taken for granted.
“I think it’s expecting too much of Djibouti, which is really doing its homework in the Horn of Africa, that Djibouti alone can handle all this movement of people without an impact on its own budget and its own development path,” he said.
“The Horn of Africa continues to need at least one country, one spot, that can remain peaceful and stable, as Djibouti has been so far.”
This stability, he said, “is not by miracle; it is the result of a lot of work and very wise decisions across the years,” including the enduring authority of traditional leaders who continue to settle disputes over land and cattle by consensus.
The country also hosts US and Chinese military bases just 12 kilometers apart, while maintaining good relations with each nation.
“Djibouti doesn’t have oil, doesn’t have gas, but it has a lot of wise decisions and a very strategic position,” Barahona said.
Climate Change and the Horn of Africa:
Climate change and climate-induced migration in the Horn of Africa could seriously exacerbate security risks in the region. The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reiterates the grim facts of climate change in Africa. The continent has contributed little (less than 4 percent) to total greenhouse gas emissions but has already suffered serious consequences, from biodiversity loss to reduced food production. In East Africa particularly, drought frequency has doubled. Yet, between 2010 and 2018, most Horn countries received less than the average amount of climate adaptation funding per capita for lower-income countries, despite ranking at the top of climate vulnerability indices. Not only is financing for adaptation measures insufficient, but climate research in the region is also under-resourced.
The Horn of Africa is extremely vulnerable to climate change, as it encompasses vast drylands, numerous pastoralist communities, multiple border disputes, unresolved trans-boundary water-rights issues, and porous land borders. The region also has a traumatic and politically contentious history with natural disaster, famine, and conflict, including the 1983–85 Ethiopian famine and the controversial 1992–93 humanitarian intervention in Somalia. In fact, the impetus for forming the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in 1986 was to address drought and desertification from a regional perspective, with peace and security issues added to the organization’s mandate in 1996 due to the obvious interconnection of those issues. The Horn’s history informs and sometimes politically distorts perceptions of current climate-related threats.
Ongoing conflicts in the region add complexity to any effort to envision future scenarios. The Horn is not just at risk for conflict and instability—conflict and instability are its current reality. In Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan, multiple ongoing conflicts involve violent clashes between military and militia forces. The region already hosts nearly 2.9 million refugees and asylum seekers and over 12 million internally displaced persons. The Horn is currently the site of one of the world’s worst food insecurity crises; in August of 2022 the number of highly food-insecure people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia reached twenty-two million, and some already face famine conditions. Although conflict and crisis prevention is at the heart of efforts to identify interconnected climate and migration risks, for many in the region, the present is already characterized by insecurity, and the future by uncertainty.
https://www.cfr.org/reports/climate-change-and-regional-instability-horn-africa
