The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in its recent Displacement Tracking Matrix disclosed that Ethiopian nationals accounted for 91 percent of migrants recorded entering Yemen in July 2026.
IOM’s matrix recorded 13,687 migrants entering Yemen during the month, a three percent increase from the 13,339 migrants tracked in June.
The report shows that Ethiopian nationals represented 91 percent of the incoming migrants, while Somali nationals accounted for nine percent.
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Most of the migrants reached Yemen after departing from Djibouti, which accounted for around 68 percent of the inflow. Another 26 percent arrived from Somalia and six percent from Oman, according to IOM.
Men accounted for 62 percent of migrants entering Yemen in July, while women represented 19 percent and children under the age of 18 accounted for another 19 percent.
IOM reported that economic improvement was the main reason given by incoming migrants for choosing their intended destination, accounting for 85 percent of responses. Food insecurity accounted for eight percent, while seven percent cited other reasons.
The report also recorded 1,649 migrants leaving Yemen during July, all of whom were Ethiopian nationals. Of the total, 1,345 travelled toward Djibouti, while 304 headed toward Oman.
Among the migrants leaving Yemen, 82 percent cited being unable to reach their intended destination as the reason for their movement, while 18 percent were recorded as temporary migrants, according to IOM.
The high proportion of Ethiopian nationals has also been recorded in earlier IOM assessments in Yemen. In its 2025 Annual Flow Monitoring Report, IOM said an assessment conducted in February 2025 identified more than 55,500 migrants living in accessible locations across 10 assessed governorates in Yemen. Ethiopian nationals accounted for 91 percent of that migrant population, followed by Somali nationals at nine percent and migrants of other nationalities at less than one percent.
IOM’s Flow Monitoring Registry tracks migrant arrivals to and departures from Yemen through pre-identified monitoring points accessible to its teams. The figures therefore represent movements recorded at those monitoring locations and do not constitute a comprehensive count of all migrants entering or leaving Yemen, nor of all Ethiopians migrating out of Ethiopia.
