Yemenis flee across Red Sea as Houthis and Saudi-backed forces escalate war

Ibrahim Issa, 50, is from the Yemeni coastal town of Dhubab, right on the front lines of the war between Yemen's Houthis and the Saudi-backed pro-government forces fighting them. Today he sits, surrounded by his family, on a tarpaulin spread over a sandy floor inside a vast open-sided warehouse at Markazi camp in Obock, northern Djibouti, packed with Yemeni families who have fled by boat across the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait. After their sea crossing, Yemeni refugees have made their way by truck and on foot to this camp, jointly administered by the government and the UN. "How could I just sit there when my kids are screaming and shaking in terror?" says Ibrahim Issa.