Adedokun Waliyu 
At least 139 migrants died, including 15 children, and 84 went missing when an overcrowded boat sank while travelling from Djibouti to Yemen, a United Nations agency said on Sunday.
The vessel was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopian nationals, when it capsized north of the Djibouti town of Obock overnight on October 8–9, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.
“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” Alexandre Coissac, IOM chief of mission in Djibouti, told AFP.
“This is a devastating loss of life,” he said earlier in the statement.
“Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives.”
The IOM initially reported 109 deaths and 116 missing people. The death toll was later revised to 139 after more bodies were recovered, while the number of missing people dropped to 84.
Coissac said IOM teams were working alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency assistance.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities” by crossing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to Yemen before attempting to reach Gulf countries, he said.
Coissac added that he had spoken to a survivor from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where renewed fighting has broken out between rebels and federal government forces.
Perilous Yemen Route
Among the 109 bodies recovered before the latest update were 52 men, 42 women and 15 children, comprising nine girls and six boys, according to the initial statement.
The updated toll indicated that 82 people survived the shipwreck, all of them Ethiopian nationals.
“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.
The agency said it was assisting 64 survivors at a migrant centre in Obock.
“Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations as fears grow for those still missing,” the organisation said.
The IOM described the incident as “one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded” along the migration route.
IOM spokesman Kennedy Omondi Okoth told AFP that 178,000 people had arrived in Djibouti from Ethiopia between January and October 2026.
Since September 10, the agency has detected more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti, despite escalating conflict in Yemen.
Yemen has been affected by fighting between the Saudi-backed government and Tehran-backed Houthi rebels, who have joined the wider regional conflict involving the United States and its allies against Iran.
Coissac said 150 of the people aboard the boat that sank off Djibouti had previously been turned back from Yemen but had attempted the crossing again.
Ethiopian and Somali Migrants
In 2025, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the sea route to Yemen, while the number attempting the journey increased by 18 per cent, the IOM said.
A shipwreck in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing.
Okoth said most people attempting the journey were 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 partners to strengthen support for Djibouti’s response, including search-and-rescue operations and life-saving assistance.
