Yemen's Houthi militia, aligned with Iran, has threatened to attack tankers using Saudi Arabian ports, potentially disrupting Saudi oil exports and deepening the regional crisis, with the US weighing responses.
The UN refugee agency says the Iran war has pushed shipping rates up by nearly 18%, severely impacting aid delivery to refugees across Africa and the wider region. Transport capacity has dropped from 97% to 77% since January, with some routes more than doubling in cost. The agency is rerouting cargo via Jordan's Aqaba and the Cape of Good Hope, adding up to 25 days to delivery times. UNHCR needs $8.5 billion for this year but has only received 23% funding.
Several countries across the globe lack permanent surface rivers, forcing them to rely on advanced desalination, groundwater extraction, and historical water management techniques to sustain their populations and agriculture.
ADDIS ABABA: The number of migrants who died on the “Eastern Route” from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula doubled to a record high of 922 last year, the UN migration agency said Wednesday. Tens of thousands of migrants from Ethiopia, Somalia and neighboring countries take the route across the Red Sea each year, mostly from Djibouti to Yemen, in search of work as laborers or domestic workers in wealthy Gulf countries.
