Top U.S. diplomat John Kerry left early Friday on a landmark trip to Sri Lanka, the first such visit in a decade to the Indian Ocean island as it returns to the diplomatic fold.

Kerry is due to arrive around dawn Saturday in Colombo, becoming the first U.S. secretary of state to set foot in the South Asian nation since Colin Powell, who visited in 2005 in the wake of the devastating Asian tsunami.

Pakistani teacher Saima Tanveer betrays little emotion as she recounts her family's terrifying dash through war-torn Aden, dodging bullets and shells to reach the port and flee Yemen on a Chinese naval vessel.

The 35-year-old was among around 170 Pakistanis who escaped the country on April 3, along with her accountant husband and two disabled children.

Hundreds of American citizens and their families have fled Yemen on foreign ships, joining an exodus of terrified people fleeing intense airstrikes against Shiite rebels, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

They have been brought to safety on board Indian, Korean and Russian ships sailing from Yemen across a narrow channel of the Red Sea, only 30 kilometers (20 miles) wide, to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Refugees from war-torn Yemen describe the terror of intense airstrikes as they arrive in the Horn of Africa, where aid agencies are fearing an influx of people.

On the sun-blasted shores of Djibouti, those who have taken a perilous boat ride across the Gulf of Aden describe the horror of the airstrikes that pounded their homes in Yemen.

Refugees from war-torn Yemen fleeing intense airstrikes are arriving in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, aid agencies said Wednesday, warning of a possible large influx ahead.

While a total of 238 refugees from Yemen have registered in Djibouti in recent weeks, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said, preparations were being made for many more.

The United States has temporarily shuttered its embassy in Djibouti to the public to review security due to "ongoing threats," U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The embassy in the Horn of Africa nation will be closed from Thursday, and will reopen for regular business on Sunday.

East African foreign ministers met in Mogadishu on Saturday to push peace efforts in war-torn Somalia, the first time the regional bloc has met in the country for almost three decades.

Dozens of heavily armed soldiers and police patrolled the streets, where Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab militants regularly carry out bombings and killings.

Djibouti's government announced Wednesday it had reached a deal with the Horn of Africa country's main opposition party following 18 months of negotiations.

The deal, seen as crucial for the stability of the strategic nation, paves the way for the opposition Union for National Salvation (USN) to take up seats in parliament for the first time since 2013, when it accused the government of rigging the elections.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will travel to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya next week, leading a delegation from six other international organizations to the volatile Horn of Africa region.

The secretary-general will be joined by World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and by officials from the African Union, the European Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, a U.N. statement said Friday.

A Djiboutian presidential guard opened fire at the capital's airport Monday, wounding two people, a government spokesman said, adding that President Ismael Omar Guelleh was not present during the shooting.

One of those wounded in the shooting was the president's doctor, Colonel Idriss Abdi Galab.