CAIRO — More than 85,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since the beginning of September as Iran-backed Houthi forces press along the country’s Red Sea coast and claim new attacks on Saudi Arabia, according to the International Organization for Migration figures cited by the Associated Press.

A Houthi military spokesman said the group had used missiles and drones against a military base in Saudi Arabia’s Najran region. He did not provide evidence or specify when the alleged operation occurred. Saudi civil defence said a projectile fell near the Yemen border in al-Tawwal governorate, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and other buildings; it also reported sirens in Sharurah without reporting casualties there.

The movement has altered the geography of a conflict that had been largely contained by a ceasefire since 2022. The Houthis have captured a port city and an island near the Bab el-Mandeb, the Red Sea passage that offers an alternative route to Hormuz. Their advance has brought them to within about 20 miles of the US military base in Djibouti, AP reported.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government says it will regroup and return to the coast. A senior presidential council member described the collapse of government-allied forces as painful, while a military official blamed poor coordination among allied militias. Those statements describe the government’s position; they do not establish how quickly it can reverse the losses.

The humanitarian cost is already measurable. The IOM said more than 2,000 Yemenis had reached Djibouti, while the wider displacement figure continued to rise. The immediate danger is a conflict widening around a strategic shipping lane; the longer danger is that civilians who fled once will have nowhere stable to return to if the front hardens.