Djibouti migrant boat disaster leaves 139 dead, including 15 children

What happened

At least 139 people, including 15 children, have died after a migrant boat overturned off Djibouti while heading towards Yemen. About 82 people survived, and 84 remain missing as authorities continue search-and-rescue operations along the coast.

The vessel was carrying about 305 people when it capsized during the night of 8-9 October. Survivors placed the disaster near Guhere, to the north of Obock, a fishing and port town used by people crossing between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations migration agency, raised the death toll from 109 on Sunday after another 30 bodies were recovered. The figures make this a disaster in which substantially more people are known to have died than survived.

The initial count of recovered bodies included 52 men, 42 women and 15 children. Nine of those children were girls and six were boys. That breakdown covered the first 109 deaths, before the additional bodies brought the total to 139.

All the survivors are Ethiopian nationals. The IOM is helping 64 of them at its migrant response centre in Obock, while local authorities are providing medical treatment and organising burials for those who died. The agency described the vessel as overcrowded.

The background

The passengers were travelling along the Eastern Route, which connects the Horn of Africa with the Arabian Peninsula through Djibouti and Yemen. Many people undertaking the journey hope to move onwards to wealthier Gulf countries, seeking employment, greater security or relief from difficult living conditions at home.

Djibouti, a small former French colony, lies across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. Its position makes it a departure point for sea crossings towards the Arabian Peninsula, including across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Obock is also a place where people arriving from Yemen receive help.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants use the wider route each year, predominantly Ethiopians and Somalis. Its hazards extend beyond the water: people can face lengthy walks in intense heat before boarding crowded boats operated by smugglers. A sea crossing is therefore one stage of a longer, dangerous journey.

The IOM’s Missing Migrants Project recorded more than 900 people dead or missing along the route in 2025. During that year, the number undertaking the journey increased by 18%. Those figures cover the wider migration corridor, rather than deaths off Djibouti alone.

A separate boat disaster in March 2026 killed nine people and left another 45 missing. The latest sinking follows that earlier loss of life on the same route, where people continue attempting the crossing despite the risks associated with travelling by sea.

Recent monitoring also points to substantial movement towards Djibouti. Since 10 September, the IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix recorded more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia into the country. That is a measure of movement across the route, not a count of passengers who subsequently boarded boats for Yemen.

Ethiopians interviewed by the agency between 20 and 30 September described hardship at home, including the effects of drought. Others said they were escaping conflict or forced recruitment by armed forces. Their accounts illustrate how environmental pressures, economic difficulties and insecurity can combine behind decisions to leave.

Fighting broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on 23 September. Residents described young men being forcibly recruited by Tigrayan rebels, an allegation the rebels denied. The violence raised fears of a wider conflict as relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea deteriorated over alleged Eritrean support for an anti-government rebel alliance; Eritrea denied backing it.

Yemen, meanwhile, has endured civil war for more than a decade. Renewed fighting between the Saudi Arabia-backed government and the Iran-backed Houthis represents the most serious escalation since a UN-brokered truce in 2022, which had largely brought cross-border attacks to a halt.

What people are saying

Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, expressed sympathy for survivors, bereaved families and relatives still waiting for news. He linked the loss of life to the dangers people encounter while travelling through the corridor in search of economic opportunities.

The agency’s assessment is that violence in Yemen has not stopped migrants trying to reach Gulf countries through it. Poverty, insecurity and the growing effects of climate change continue to drive departures from the Horn of Africa, even when the journey leads first into another country affected by war.

An IOM official said the organisation had tracked substantial migration through Djibouti for several years. Conditions in Ethiopia and Yemen can alter both the scale and direction of travel, meaning the route carries people responding to different pressures rather than a single, fixed flow towards one destination.

What happens next

Djiboutian authorities are continuing efforts to find those still missing. The search follows the recovery of the additional bodies that changed the toll on Sunday, while the number of people unaccounted for remains central to the emergency response around Obock and the nearby coastline.

At the migrant response centre, assistance includes food, healthcare and psychosocial support. These services address different needs after the shipwreck: immediate physical care, basic necessities and help with the psychological effects of surviving an incident in which many fellow passengers died.

The IOM is also helping survivors re-establish contact with their families. That work forms a separate part of the response alongside treatment and shelter-based assistance, allowing people who survived the crossing attempt to reconnect with relatives after being brought ashore.

The agency is working with local authorities on assistance for migrants and efforts to prevent further deaths both at sea and on land. Its response therefore extends beyond the immediate coastal emergency to the risks people face while moving through the wider corridor.

Those services operate against a background of travel in the opposite direction as well. More than 3,700 people have fled Yemen by sea to Djibouti, according to the IOM. The same coastal country receiving Ethiopian survivors is consequently also receiving people escaping the war across the water.

Why this matters

For UK readers, the disaster illustrates a major migration route whose intended destination is the Gulf, rather than Europe. It also shows why arrival in Yemen does not mean reaching safety: migrants seeking work are travelling towards a country from which thousands of residents are themselves fleeing.

The wider conflict has relevance beyond migration. Changes in control inside Yemen could affect Red Sea shipping lanes, an important connection in international trade. The humanitarian emergency around Djibouti is unfolding beside that maritime corridor, linking the safety of people crossing by small boat with instability in a region important to shipping.