At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and around 84 others remain missing after a boat carrying more than 300 people capsized while travelling from Djibouti to Yemen, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The vessel, carrying 305 people, overturned near Guhere, north of Obock, a port town in Djibouti, during the night of October 8 to 9, the IOM said on Sunday, citing accounts from survivors.
Around 82 people survived the disaster, the agency said. Photographs shared by the IOM showed worn-out sandals and trainers washed up along the shore.
“Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,” said Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti.
“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities,” he added.
Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations, while local officials are providing medical treatment to survivors and arranging burials for those who died.
The migrants were travelling towards Yemen in the hope of eventually reaching wealthier Gulf nations, despite the country’s worsening security situation.
Yemen has experienced its most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia-backed government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels since a United Nations-brokered truce in 2022.
“Despite the violence in Yemen, migrants are still making the perilous journeys hoping to make it to the Gulf countries,” the IOM said.
Conflict And Drought Drive Migration
The IOM said migrants had continued using the so-called Eastern Route through Djibouti for years, despite changing conditions in Ethiopia and Yemen.
An agency official told Reuters that the volume and direction of migration along the route could shift over time as circumstances changed.
Ethiopian migrants interviewed for the IOM’s latest situation report on Djibouti, covering September 20 to 30, cited difficult living conditions, including the effects of drought, as reasons for leaving their country.
Some also reported fleeing conflict and forced recruitment by armed forces.
Residents of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where fighting erupted on September 23, told Reuters they had witnessed Tigrayan rebels forcibly recruiting young men into their defence forces. The rebels have denied carrying out forced recruitment.
The renewed fighting has raised fears of a return to full-scale war, as tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea intensify over allegations that Eritrea is supporting a rebel alliance seeking to overthrow the Ethiopian government. Eritrea has denied backing the alliance.
Deadly Migration Route Claims Hundreds Of Lives
The Eastern Route exposes migrants to numerous dangers, including shipwrecks, human trafficking and arbitrary arrests after reaching land.
According to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route in 2025, as the number of people undertaking the journey increased by 18%.
The agency has also warned of the worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where displacement figures surged to 200,000 from 76,000 in mid-September, according to figures released last week.
More than 3,700 people had also fled Yemen by sea to Djibouti as of last week, the IOM said.
