Over the past two weeks, ongoing clashes along Yemen’s western coast amid a renewed bout of conflict have forced at least 112,000 people from their homes within the country, while nearly 3,000 others have escaped by sea to Djibouti, the UN migration agency reported on Friday.

The Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen has intensified its assaults on Saudi cities and energy facilities and is pushing forward along Yemen’s Red Sea shoreline toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital maritime corridor.

In response to the Houthi advance, Saudi and Yemeni air forces have launched airstrikes against Houthi positions.

In under a week, close to 3,000 people have crossed the Gulf of Aden to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa as intensifying violence forces more families to flee, Sandrine Desamours, the representative of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), told reporters in Geneva via video link from Djibouti.

She said the Djiboutian government is bracing for the arrival of up to 10,000 refugees, a surge that will place severe strain on the country’s health care and education systems.

The UN International Organization for Migration reported that people are escaping on overcrowded boats and reaching their destinations with very little food and water.

The majority of those fleeing are Yemeni families seeking refuge in Djibouti, but the IOM is also starting to observe a small number of migrants, primarily from Ethiopia, traveling along the same route.

Authorities in Somaliland and Puntland have likewise noted a rise in arrivals from Yemen, comprising both Yemeni refugees and returning Somali refugees, although the figures remain in the hundreds for the time being, according to UNHCR.

UN agencies characterised the renewed fighting as a crisis layered on top of many others, noting that the country’s health system and economy have been devastated by a prolonged civil war between forces loyal to the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government and the Houthis, resulting in one of the world’s largest humanitarian emergencies.

The Houthi push along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline is strengthening Tehran’s position in its confrontation with the United States, as the group consolidates its grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait—a critical passage for global oil and commodities trade—more than six months after US and Israeli strikes on Iran.