US orders non-essential staff out of Saudi Arabia

Summary

The United States has ordered non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks on the kingdom escalate, moving the regional tension into an evacuation stage.⁠12

Two people were killed in a drone strike on Saudi Arabia's Shaybah oil field, though the state news agency said operations there were not affected.⁠3

The UK also said it will deploy Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to protect against Houthi attacks.⁠4

In Africa, Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case, a woman who arrived on an international flight from Uganda and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja.⁠5

Uganda's health ministry said it had no confirmed active Ebola cases at the time of its statement.⁠6

The UN has warned that this year's El Niño could be the strongest on record and said the humanitarian system cannot cope alone, urging countries to prepare.⁠7

For Saudi Arabia, the next signal is whether the State Department's reported departure order for embassies across the Gulf is formally issued.⁠8