There has been a jump in the number of Somalis, hit by famine, instability and high food prices who are fleeing to Yemen instead of other countries in the drought-ridden Horn of Africa region, the UN refugee agency said. Some 3.7 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.
Kenya, with nearly 498,000 Somali refugees, is the largest host country, and at one point 1,500 refugees a day were arriving at Kenya's sprawling, overcrowded Dadaab refugee camp near the border with Somalia. "Recently, however, the pace of arrivals to the Dadaab refugee complex has slowed to 1,000-1,200 people per day," the UNHCR said in a briefing on Friday. "Bucking the trend of the slowing outflow in the Horn of Africa, Yemen is seeing a sharp rise in the number of Somali refugees arriving on rickety boats across the Gulf of Aden," the agency said, adding that more than 3,700 refugees had reached Yemen's coast in August.