At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and 84 remain missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off Djibouti while travelling towards Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday. The vessel was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopian nationals, when it sank north of the coastal town of Obock on the night of 8-9 October.
The death toll was revised upwards after additional bodies were recovered. The IOM initially reported 109 deaths and 116 missing, but its updated figures put the number of survivors at 82, all Ethiopian nationals. The agency said Djiboutian authorities were continuing search and rescue operations amid fears for those still unaccounted for.
“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” said Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti.
“This is a devastating loss of life,” he said, expressing sympathy for survivors and families who had lost relatives or remained without news of loved ones.
The IOM said its teams were working alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency assistance. It was supporting 64 survivors at a migrant centre in Obock, while search operations continued.
The disaster occurred along a dangerous migration corridor used by people attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait from the Horn of Africa to Yemen before travelling onwards to Gulf countries. The IOM described the sinking as “one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded” on the 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.
Coissac said he had spoken to a survivor from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, where rebels are engaged in renewed fighting with the federal government. He also said 150 passengers aboard the sunken vessel had previously been turned back from Yemen but had attempted the crossing again.
The number of people undertaking the journey has remained high despite the risks and continuing conflict in Yemen. Kennedy Omondi Okoth, an IOM spokesman, said 178,000 people had arrived in Djibouti from Ethiopia between January and October this year. Since 10 September, the agency had detected more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti.
Yemen remains affected by fighting between the Saudi-backed government and Houthi rebels supported by Tehran. The conflict has also become entangled in wider regional hostilities involving the United States and its allies against Iran.
Many migrants attempting the crossing are from Ethiopia or Somalia, Okoth said, with some becoming stranded in Djibouti. The IOM reported that 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 separate shipwreck in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing.
IOM Director General Amy Pope called for governments and donors to expand safe and legal migration options.
“No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,” Pope said. “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 agency urged donors and partners to strengthen support for Djibouti’s search and rescue operations and emergency assistance. African Union Commission chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf also expressed “profound sorrow over the tragic loss of life”, calling for action to address the causes of irregular migration, combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and promote safe, orderly and regular migration.
