A boat carrying 350 migrants across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Djibouti to Yemen capsized near Guhere, north of Obock, on the night of 8 October.
At least 139 people have died and 84 remain missing. More than 80 survivors were rescued, and all those identified were Ethiopian nationals.
The boat had left Djibouti carrying migrants, most of whom were seeking to travel through Yemen and on to Gulf countries for economic opportunities.
An initial count put the number of dead at 109, including 15 children, and listed 116 people as missing. Further search and recovery operations found another 30 bodies, raising the death toll to at least 139.
Those recovered include at least 52 men, 42 women and 15 children. The children were nine girls and six boys.
Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations for the 84 migrants still missing.
The International Organisation for Migration is assisting survivors at its Obock Migrant Response Centre, while its teams work alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency aid.
Alexandre Coissac, the IOM chief of mission in Djibouti, said the organisation's thoughts were with survivors and the families of those who had died or remained missing.
He called the disaster “a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities” by crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Yemen and then travelling to Gulf countries.
Thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa travel through Djibouti before making the crossing to Yemen. More than 900 migrants died or went missing on the route in 2025, according to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project.
The IOM described the latest capsizing as ‘one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded’ on the Djibouti-Yemen route.
Comments (0)