‘Started to sink backwards’: 139 migrants killed as boat capsizes off Djibouti

At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and 84 remain missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti while carrying more than 300 people towards Yemen, the United Nations migration agency said on Sunday.The boat was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopians, when it sank near Guhere, off Djibouti’s eastern coast, in the Gulf of Aden during the night of October 8-9, according to the international organisation for migration (IOM). At least 82 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals.“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” Alexandre Coissac, IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, said, describing the incident as a “devastating loss of life”.

The agency initially reported 109 deaths and 116 people missing, but revised the toll to 139 dead and 84 missing after more bodies were recovered. The official count may rise further, as some bodies buried by migrants themselves have yet to be verified by authorities, Coissac told the Associated Press.Djiboutian authorities continued search and rescue operations, while IOM teams provided emergency assistance.

The agency said it was assisting 64 survivors at a migrant centre in the coastal town of Obock.The crossing from the Horn of Africa to Yemen via the Bab al-Mandeb strait is a popular but dangerous route for migrants seeking jobs and safety in Gulf countries. The narrow waterway separates Djibouti and Yemen, but the journey carries significant risks amid conflict and instability across the region.“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 said 150 people aboard the boat had previously been turned back from Yemen but had attempted the crossing again.The agency recorded more than 20,000 incoming movements from Ethiopia to Djibouti since September 10. In 2025, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the sea route to Yemen, while the number attempting the journey rose by 18%, according to the IOM.The latest disaster follows a shipwreck in March 2026 that left nine people dead and 45 missing.IOM director general Amy Pope urged governments and donors to expand support for search and rescue operations and create safer migration routes.“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.”