NAIROBI, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and 45 humanitarian and development partners on Tuesday appealed for 81 million U.S. dollars to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance to over 1.4 million migrants in the Horn of Africa region and Yemen in 2025.

The funding request, which falls under a migrant response plan for the Horn of Africa to Yemen and southern Africa, coordinated by the IOM will also help the communities that host the migrants in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Yemen.

"Without immediate support for migrants and the communities that host them, suffering will deepen, tensions will rise, and life-saving aid will remain out of reach," IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

According to the IOM, hundreds of thousands of migrants embark each year on dangerous irregular journeys, primarily from Ethiopia and Somalia, aiming to reach Gulf nations including Saudi Arabia via Djibouti and Yemen.

Migrants also travel through Kenya, Tanzania, and other southern African countries, with the hope of reaching South Africa.

The IOM said these journeys are largely taken by migrants who are desperately searching for work because of grinding economic hardship and poverty, and in some cases because of violence and political instability at home. Also, climate shocks and disasters are increasingly becoming migration drivers.

According to the IOM and its partners, over 1.4 million migrants and the communities that host them along these routes will need assistance this year. The needs include food, non-food items, medical care, water, sanitation and hygiene, protection, and psycho-social support, along with voluntary return and reintegration support.

More than 446,000 movements were tracked along the eastern route, 10 percent of which were by children, according to the IOM Regional Data Hub for East, Horn, and Southern Africa.

According to IOM's Missing Migrants Project, at least 559 people lost their lives along the eastern and southern routes in 2024, while many more deaths are known to go unreported.

It said women and girls, who make up nearly a third of the tracked movements, often risk facing sexual and gender-based violence. Enditem

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