Yemenis take to boats to flee as Middle East war spreads
Yemenis have taken to boats across the Red Sea to escape fighting between Iran-backed Houthi fighters and Saudi-backed forces, as the expanding Middle East war creates new threats to global oil supplies.
“The sea was wavy. The children were getting seasick; everyone ... is not used to the sea,” said Ahmad Hassan, 70, who reached Africa on a crowded boat and spoke to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Hassan said he fled his village after Houthi fighters arrived and the area came under airstrikes.
“The longer we stayed, the worse things got, the shops closed and there was no more food to buy,” he said.
The IOM says more than 100,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the latest fighting, most of them within Yemen.
Houthi-controlled television reported fresh Saudi airstrikes on Thursday in Hajjah province near the Saudi border and the Red Sea coast, as well as in the vicinity of Taiz further south and inland.
The Houthis, who have seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast since last week in a rapid advance, say the Saudi Air Force has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in recent days. The Houthis have responded by firing missiles and drones at targets across the border.
On Wednesday, the Houthis said they had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet. Video released by the group overnight showed fighters shouting “Allahu Akbar” amid the charred wreckage at a crash site and holding a piece of an aircraft wing bearing Saudi insignia.
Trump hopes war will end soon
The conflict’s spread to Yemen and Saudi Arabia threatens to deepen a global energy supply shortage that began after the United States and Israel attacked Iran in February.
Global crude prices have hovered between $100 and $110 a barrel this week, their highest levels since May, while fuel costs for consumers and industry have risen more sharply. The average retail price of diesel in the United States reached a record high on Thursday, at just under $6.40 a gallon.
US President Donald Trump has so far rebuffed Saudi requests for military support against the Houthis, who agreed to a ceasefire with Washington last year after the United States bombed the group for two months.
“Well, hopefully we are towards the end of the war,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. He said the Iranians “want to make a deal. We'll see how that works out.”
No negotiations between the United States and Iran to end the war have taken place since an interim agreement reached in June collapsed within weeks.
The US Navy is attempting to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway along Iran’s coast through which one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the war. Washington is also imposing a blockade on Iranian ports.
Iran says the strait is closed and will remain so until the United States lifts the blockade. Tehran is seeking an agreement with neighbouring Gulf states that would allow it to collect fees from ships passing through the waterway.
The fighting in Yemen and attacks on Saudi Arabia have also put the main alternative route for Gulf oil at risk. The Houthis have captured Yemen’s Red Sea coast and islands near the Bab el-Mandeb, or “Gate of Tears”, strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.
Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, which enabled the kingdom to transport oil across the Arabian Peninsula for shipment from the Red Sea, has remained shut since it was struck last week in an attack Riyadh said originated from Iraq, where Iran-backed militias also operate.