Somalis fleeing to Yemen

Nearly 4 million Somalis are at risk of starvation in the worst drought in decades and most of those are from five areas in the rebel-controlled south where famine has been declared. Thousands are fleeing the Horn of Africa country, which is also suffering from a civil war.
However, fewer and fewer are arriving in the often overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. Instead, more and more are taking to the sea to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.
“We have seen more than 3,700 Somali refugees reached Yemen’s coast so far in August,” said Adrian Edwards, the United Nations refugee agency spokesman in Geneva.
“This is certainly an earlier than normal start to what we would view as a traditional peak season for smugglers’ boats to arrive from Bossaso in northern Somalia, and is the highest monthly arrival rate so far this year,” he said “People are telling us they fled Somalia because of the unstable security situation, severe drought, high food prices and just simply the lack of opportunities for employment.”
According to UNHCR, Yemen now hosts the second-largest population of Somali refugees in the region, with nearly 192,000.
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