IOM launches $81 million appeal to meet needs of migrants in Yemen, South Africa

The International Organization for Migration ( IOM ) and 45 humanitarian and development partners have launched an appeal to donors for $81 million to meet the humanitarian needs of more than one million migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and South Africa this year.

The organization said in a funding appeal it launched on Tuesday that it needs $81 million to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to more than one million migrants, including women and children, and the communities hosting them in Yemen, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya, during the year 2025.

The appeal added that the funding request comes within the framework of the regional plan to respond to migrants from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and South Africa, coordinated by the International Organization for Migration.

The IOM noted that more than 1.4 million migrants and host communities along these routes will need assistance this year, with needs including “food, non-food items, medical care, water, sanitation and hygiene, protection, psychosocial support, as well as voluntary return and reintegration support.”

The appeal explained that economic difficulties, poverty, violence, political instability, shocks and climate disasters in the Horn of Africa countries are pushing hundreds of thousands of migrants, especially from Ethiopia and Somalia, to undertake risky journeys, with the aim of reaching the Gulf countries via Djibouti and Yemen. On another route, they travel via Kenya, Tanzania and other countries in the hope of reaching South Africa to search for work.

“Every day, countless women, men and children face deadly risks along Africa’s eastern and southern migration routes,” said IOM Director Amy Pope.

“Without immediate support for migrants and host communities, suffering will deepen, tensions will rise, and life-saving assistance will remain out of reach,” she added, stressing that “the time to act is now. We must step up our efforts to protect lives, strengthen protection systems, and address the root causes of displacement.”

The organization indicated that it monitored 446,000 movements along the eastern route last year, 10 percent of which were children, according to the International Organization for Migration's Regional Data Center for the Eastern Horn of Africa and Southern Africa.