The United Nations migration agency has raised the death toll from a boat disaster off Djibouti to at least 139, with 84 people still missing, after more bodies were recovered from one of the deadliest shipwrecks on the Horn of Africa migration route this year.
The overcrowded vessel, carrying about 305 people — most of them Ethiopian nationals — capsized near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, during the night of 8–9 October while sailing towards Yemen. The International Organization for Migration initially reported 109 dead and 116 missing on Sunday, then revised the figures as recovery teams found another 30 bodies. Among the dead are 15 children, including nine girls and six boys. The shipwreck adds to a series of fast-moving international crises this month, even as American allies in Asia move to tighten their own security cooperation.
Survivors’ accounts
More than 80 people survived, all Ethiopian nationals, and the agency is assisting 64 of them at its migrant response centre in Obock with shelter, medical care and help contacting their families. Survivors told the agency’s Djibouti chief that the boat began sinking almost as soon as they boarded. Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations, and officials cautioned the toll could rise further, as some bodies buried by fellow migrants have yet to be verified.
The agency said about 150 of those aboard had previously been turned back from Yemen and were attempting the crossing again — a measure of the desperation driving the route. More than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia into Djibouti have been recorded since 10 September. Initial details of the sinking were reported by international wires.
A dangerous corridor
The crossing from the Horn of Africa to Yemen, via the narrow Bab al-Mandeb strait, is one of the world’s busiest irregular migration routes, used by people seeking work and safety in Gulf states despite war and instability across the region. The agency attributes the journeys to poverty, insecurity and the growing effects of climate change.
The tragedy comes as Yemen endures its most serious escalation in fighting since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022, with displacement surging from 76,000 to 200,000 since mid-September. For the survivors in Obock, the immediate needs are medical care and answers; for the missing, the search continues. Updated casualty figures were carried in subsequent agency updates.
