At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and 84 remain missing after an overcrowded boat sank while travelling from Djibouti to Yemen, the International Organization for Migration has said.
The vessel was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopians, when it capsized north of the Djiboutian town of Obock overnight between October 8 and 9, according to the UN agency.
The IOM initially reported 109 deaths and 116 missing people but revised the figures to 139 dead and 84 missing after more bodies were recovered.
“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, Alexandre Coissac, told AFP.
“This is a devastating loss of life,” he said in an earlier statement.
“Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives.”
The agency said its teams were working alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency assistance to survivors.
Coissac described the disaster as a reminder of the dangers migrants face along the route as they seek economic opportunities by crossing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to Yemen and travelling onwards to Gulf countries.
He said he had spoken to a survivor from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where renewed violence has been reported between rebels and the federal government.
Survivors receive emergency assistance
The IOM said 82 people survived the shipwreck, all of them Ethiopian nationals. The agency was assisting 64 survivors at a migrant centre in Obock, while Djiboutian authorities continued search and rescue operations.
Among the 109 bodies recovered before the death toll was revised were 52 men, 42 women and 15 children, comprising nine girls and six boys.
The agency 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 IOM said.
Coissac added that 150 of the people aboard the boat had previously been turned back from Yemen but had attempted the crossing again.
Dangerous migration route
The sea route from the Horn of Africa to Yemen remains a major migration corridor for people seeking work and better living conditions in Gulf countries.
IOM spokesman Kennedy Omondi Okoth told AFP that 178,000 people had travelled from Ethiopia to Djibouti between January and October 2026.
Since September 10, the agency had detected more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti, despite escalating conflict in Yemen.
Yemen has been affected by years of fighting between the internationally recognised government, backed by Saudi Arabia, and Houthi rebels supported by Iran. The conflict has also been affected by wider regional tensions involving Iran, the United States and its allies.
The IOM said more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the sea route to Yemen in 2025, while the number attempting the journey increased by 18 per cent. A shipwreck in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing.
Okoth said most migrants attempting the crossing were from Ethiopia or Somalia, with many becoming stranded in Djibouti.
IOM calls for safer migration routes
The IOM has urged governments and donors to strengthen support for Djibouti, particularly for search and rescue operations and emergency assistance to migrants.
“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 latest disaster highlights the risks faced by migrants undertaking dangerous sea journeys in search of employment and security, often despite conflict, poverty and limited access to safer migration routes.