As tears emerge behind the slit of 20-year-old Gada’s black face veil, Marianne Vecchione, a Catholic missionary, reaches over and clasps her hand in both of hers. After more than a minute’s silence, Gada still can’t answer the question: “How bad was it in Yemen before you left?”
Escalation of the war there led to an exodus in early 2015, with thousands fleeing to Djibouti on the opposite side of the 18-mile stretch of water known as Bab-el-Mandeb – the Gateway of Tears – due to the long history of people perishing while trying to cross it.
