At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died after an overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti.
More than 80 people are still missing after the disaster near Guhere, north of the fishing port of Obock, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, based on accounts from survivors.
The vessel was carrying roughly 305 people when it overturned overnight between October 8 and 9 while travelling from Djibouti toward Yemen.
About 82 people survived the shipwreck. All of them were Ethiopian nationals.
Of the recovered victims, 52 were men, 42 were women and 15 were children. The children included nine girls and six boys, according to the UN agency.
“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.”
At its migrant response centre in Obock, the IOM is offering medical care, psychological support, food and other emergency services.
A member of the International Organization for Migration examines the wreckage of a boat that capsized at Gehere beach near Obock while transporting migrants to Yemen in April
IOM workers receive people fleeing Yemen after their boats reached the shores of Obock in September
The governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti have been asked to comment.
Djiboutian authorities continue to conduct search-and-rescue efforts, while local officials are treating survivors and making arrangements to bury those who died.
The migrants were travelling toward Yemen in the hope of eventually reaching the wealthier Gulf states. Their journey came as Yemenis themselves continue to flee a country facing its sharpest escalation in fighting between Saudi-backed government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels since a UN-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 in a statement.
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An IOM official said the agency had recorded significant migrant movement along the route known as the Eastern Route through Djibouti for several years.
“People continue to use the route amid changing conditions in Ethiopia and Yemen, although the volume and direction of movement can shift over time,” the official said.
Ethiopian migrants interviewed for the IOM’s latest Djibouti situation report, covering September 20 to 30, said they had left their homeland because of severe living conditions, including the effects of drought.
The report also said some migrants were escaping conflict and forced recruitment by armed groups.
Several residents of Tigray, where fighting began on September 23, said they had witnessed Tigrayan rebels forcibly enlist young men into their defence forces. The rebels have denied the allegations.
The renewed violence has raised fears that Ethiopia and Eritrea could return to full-scale conflict, with the two countries severing relations over claims that Eritrea supports a rebel alliance seeking to topple Ethiopia’s government. Eritrea has denied backing the alliance.
The route from the Horn of Africa to the Arab Peninsula is used by hundreds of thousands of migrants a year, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis, making it one of the busiest migration paths in the world.
The so-called Eastern Route presents many dangers, forcing users to walk long distances in severe heat or travel on packed boats at the hands of smugglers.
In 2025, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route, according to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, as the number of people undertaking the journey increased by 18 per cent.
Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022.
The renewed conflict could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes.
The IOM described the crisis sparked by the fighting as alarming, with displacement figures surging to 200,000 from 76,000 in mid-September, according to data released last week.
More than 3,700 people have fled Yemen by sea to Djibouti, according to the IOM.
Fighting also broke out in Ethiopia last month in the biggest escalation of violence since the Tigray war.
