By Hassan Wekesa - Editor
Kenya, 12 October 2026 – The escalation of tensions between the Houthis and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia threatens flight operations, with most passengers in the Horn of Africa and East Africa likely to be stranded.
Anadolu Agency reported on Monday that Yemen’s Houthis have targeted at least five international airports in Saudi Arabia between 5 and 11 October 2026.
The five Saudi airports targeted are King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Abha International Airport in Abha, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Jizan, and Najran International Airport in Najran.
Riyadh and Dammam are in the east and centre of the country, while Abha, Jizan and Najran are in the south-west, near the Yemen border. There have been five attacks on Riyadh, two on Dammam and one each on the other three airports.
Atleast 12 people died while 309 were injured in the previous five attacks.
An additional attack on Monday killed a Pakistani national.
Houthis are targeting Saudi Arabia because it leads the government forces in their attack of Houthis in Yemen. Analysts state that the Houthis hit the airports so as to damage Saudi Arabia's international image such that countries across the globe label it as unsafe travel destination and unfit for international business.
Although Kenya Airways has not issued any official statement on flights to Saudi Arabia, Kenyan travellers are being affected indirectly. Gulf carriers that Kenyans often use to reach Saudi Arabia have cancelled Saudi routes. flydubai has already cancelled flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Abha through 14 October 2026. Etihad has announced the cancellation of selected flights to Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah through 13 October 2026, and Emirates has cancelled Dubai–Riyadh services.
This means that anyone connecting through Dubai or Abu Dhabi to those cities could be affected, even if their Nairobi leg operates. Technically, this means that flights from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea are affected.
Houthi attacks have mostly affected Riyadh, whose airport has no reopening date. Both Iran and China have expressed concern, with Tehran promising to support efforts to de-escalate tensions between the warring parties.
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Gulf Business reported on Monday that about 15% of Jeddah’s scheduled flights had been cancelled. Jeddah is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, and flights there are running with disruption rather than having stopped.
Citizens of East African countries and the Horn of Africa frequently travel to the Gulf in the hope of finding job opportunities. Disruption to travel routes affects livelihoods and dashes hopes.
In Yemen, fighting has displaced 201,217 people (33,776 households), according to the latest count by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), released on 7 October 2026. The figure has since risen. IOM said that nearly all of them, 197,755, have fled since 1 September, and that the count has climbed steadily from 104,000 and then 145,000 earlier in the crisis.
DevelopmentAid, citing IOM, stated that 114,708 people (57% of the total) have been displaced in Taiz. In Lahj, 42,264 people are displaced, while in Aden the figure is 20,814. In Abyan there are 9,030 displaced people, and in Hodeidah 8,244.
More than 3,700 people have fled by sea to Djibouti. The displacement is attributed to a Houthi military escalation that began in early September.
The United Nations (UN) migration agency, IOM, noted on 6 October 2026 that Djibouti is facing “overlapping emergencies”, as refugees fleeing the conflict in Yemen arrive on its shores while migrants continue to travel in the opposite direction.
At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and around 84 are missing after a boat carrying 305 people capsized while sailing from Djibouti to Yemen. IOM said the accident happened near Guhere, north of Obock port, during the night of 8–9 October. Around 82 people survived the shipwreck.