Baleegh Al-Mukhlafi
Writer and Media Advisor to the Embassy of Yemen in the Arab Republic of Egypt
At the dawn of the last decade of the past century, Somalia descended into a devastating civil war between the regime of former President Mohamed Siad Barre and various resistance and opposition groups across the country.
As the fighting intensified and the nation plunged into chaos and lawlessness, massive waves of Somali migrants flowed into neighboring countries, Yemen among them. Hundreds of thousands eventually found themselves as refugees in Europe, America, and other parts of Africa and the Middle East.
Estimates suggest that nearly one million Somalis now live in Europe, America, and South Africa. In those host countries, Somali communities have built micro-societies to preserve their national identity and sustain ties with their homeland—succeeding to a remarkable extent.
For over two decades, Somalia endured waves of conflict, yet glimmers of hope for state restoration always emerged, even amidst secessionist movements and regional self-governance experiments.
Decades of conflict left a legacy of famine, illiteracy, and the proliferation of extremist groups. These groups today pose not only a formidable challenge to rebuilding the Somali state, but also a regional and international threat—disrupting maritime trade routes and aligning with sub-state armed groups in the region, chief among them the Houthi militias in Yemen. Still, hope continued to flow from the children of the diaspora, most of whom were born abroad and armed themselves with education and knowledge to rebuild their homeland.
Observers of Somali affairs note that more than 80% of the professionals working in government institutions today are sons and daughters of the diaspora. They never carried rifles, but they carried pens, educated in some of the finest universities around the world.
The Somali story inevitably leads us to Yemen, its mirror across the Red Sea, where parallels abound: tribal structures, economic fragility, high illiteracy, and cyclical conflicts.
After the Houthi coup in 2014 shattered the dream of a peaceful transition toward democracy and a new Yemen grounded in justice and equality, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis joined the global diaspora. Many reached Europe, America, and parts of the Middle East. They have since emerged as a vital form of soft power—advocating for peace and the restoration of the state while countering the Houthi coup.
No precise statistics exist for the number of Yemenis abroad since the coup, but indications suggest they number in the hundreds of thousands. Amid the darkness imposed by the Houthis in their densely populated areas—where they systematically erode national identity, distort curricula, and dismantle education at both primary and university levels—the Yemeni diaspora stands as a beacon of hope at the end of the tunnel. The Somali experience provides powerful evidence of what is possible.
A final word to fellow expatriates:
The outcomes of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s foreign scholarship program laid the social foundation for the transformation that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is witnessing today. Half a million young men and women, armed with global education and knowledge, became the backbone and driving force of the largest cultural and social transformation in the Kingdom’s history.
Instill knowledge in your children—for they will carry the torch of return and spearhead the rebuilding of the homeland.
