At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and 84 remain missing after an overcrowded boat capsized while travelling from Djibouti to Yemen, the United Nations’ migration agency said Sunday.
The vessel was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopian nationals, when it sank north of the Djiboutian town of Obock overnight on October 8–9, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, told AFP.
“This is a devastating loss of life,” Coissac said in an earlier statement, extending the agency’s sympathies to survivors and families who had lost loved ones or were still awaiting news of missing relatives.
The IOM initially reported 109 deaths and 116 missing people. It later revised the toll to 139 dead and 84 missing after additional bodies were recovered.
Coissac said IOM teams were working alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency assistance to survivors.
The disaster underscored the dangers faced by migrants travelling along the route in search of economic opportunities, often attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to Yemen before continuing towards Gulf countries, he said.
Coissac added that he had spoken to a survivor from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where renewed fighting between rebel forces and the federal government has intensified insecurity.
Perilous route to Yemen
The IOM’s initial report said the 109 bodies recovered at that stage included 52 men, 42 women and 15 children — nine girls and six boys.
According to the updated figures, 82 people survived the shipwreck, all of them Ethiopian nationals. The agency said it was assisting 64 survivors at a migrant centre in Obock.
Djiboutian authorities were continuing search-and-rescue operations amid growing fears for those still missing.
The IOM described the incident as one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded along the migration route.
“Poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change drive many to undertake this journey, despite mounting instability across the Middle East,” the agency said.
IOM spokesman Kennedy Omondi Okoth told AFP that 178,000 people had arrived in Djibouti from Ethiopia between January and October this year.
Since September 10, the agency had recorded more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti, despite escalating conflict in Yemen.
Yemen has been devastated by years of fighting between the internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. The conflict has also unfolded against the backdrop of wider regional hostilities involving the United States and its allies and Iran.
Coissac said 150 of the passengers aboard the boat had previously been turned back from Yemen but had attempted the crossing again.
Ethiopian and Somali migrants
The IOM said more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the sea route to Yemen in 2025, while the number of people attempting the journey increased by 18 per cent.
A separate shipwreck in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing, according to the agency.
Okoth said most migrants attempting the journey came from Ethiopia or Somalia, with many becoming stranded in Djibouti.
“No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.
“We cannot keep treating these deaths as normal. Safe and legal pathways save lives. I am asking governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down.”
The IOM urged donors and partner organisations to increase support for Djibouti’s response, particularly search-and-rescue operations and emergency assistance for survivors.
