The United Nations Migration Agency, International Organization for Migration (IOM), announced on Tuesday 27,800 refugees from the Horn of Africa region have entered the war-torn Yemen in the first five months of 2022.

In its latest Displacement Tracking Matrix, IOM said the first five months of 2022 new arrivals figures are more than the total who made the journey all of last year.

"27,700 migrants entered Yemen through the so-called Eastern route in 2021, down from 37,500 who made the journey in 2020 and far smaller than the 138,000 who made the journey in 2019," the IOM report said.

IOM said the outbreak of COVID-19 disease caused a substantial decline in the number of new arrivals to the middle eastern country in 2020 and 2021.

"A variety of factors may be influencing this year's increase, including a loosening of COVID-19 mobility restrictions, more favorable weather conditions as well as the security situation and drought in Ethiopia," the IOM report further disclosed.

IOM has recently disclosed a 7.5 million U.S. dollars appeal to support thousands of stranded migrants to voluntarily return from Yemen to Ethiopia.

Thousands of desperate migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia cross the dangerous Gulf of Aden route annually, hoping to reach the Middle East via Yemen. They are mainly aiming to reach Yemen's northern neighbor Saudi Arabia.