🇩🇯 At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, dead in deadliest shipwreck on record off Djibouti
A boat carrying about 305 people from Djibouti to Yemen capsized near Obock on the night of October 8, killing at least 139 people and leaving 84 missing, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday. Of the 109 bodies recovered so far, 52 were men, 42 women and 15 children. All 82 survivors are Ethiopian, and 64 are being treated at an IOM center in Obock. IOM's Djibouti chief, Alexandre Coissac, called it "a devastating loss of life."
The route across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the world's deadliest. Migrants from the Horn of Africa use it to cross war-torn Yemen to seek work in Saudi Arabia. More than 900 died or went missing on the route in 2025, as crossing attempts rose 18%. IOM has recorded more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia into Djibouti since September 10. In March, another boat sank off Djibouti, leaving nine dead and 45 missing. "No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way," said IOM chief Amy Pope.