Djibouti Shipwreck Kills 139 Migrants Heading to Yemen

The Djibouti shipwreck is now one of the deadliest migrant disasters ever recorded on the route between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. According to the International Organization for Migration, at least one hundred thirty-nine people have died, and eighty-four more are still missing after an overcrowded boat went down off the Djibouti coast.

What happened on the water

The vessel was carrying three hundred five people from Djibouti toward Yemen when it capsized near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, during the night of October eighth into the ninth. Survivors told the IOM what happened, and the agency says search and rescue work is still going on.

The toll has climbed fast. The IOM first reported one hundred nine bodies recovered, then revised the number after thirty more were found. The agency has warned the death count could still rise. More than eighty people survived, and all of them were Ethiopian nationals, as Al Jazeera reported.

The children and families on board

Among the bodies recovered were fifty-two men, forty-two women and fifteen children, including nine girls and six boys. That breakdown comes from the IOM's first statement, and it shows how many families, not just solo workers, were packed onto this boat.

Survivors are being treated at the IOM's migrant response centre in Obock, where the agency says it is providing healthcare, psychosocial support, food, shelter and protection services. Staff are also helping people get back in touch with relatives.

Why people still make this crossing

The destination looks strange on paper, because Yemen is in the middle of a raging civil war. Yet the IOM says most people on this path hope to reach rich Gulf states for work. Reports say the agency has detected more than twenty thousand crossings from Djibouti to Yemen in the past month alone.

The risks are not new. The IOM says more than nine hundred migrants died or went missing on the sea route to Yemen in twenty twenty-five, even as the number attempting it rose eighteen percent. A separate wreck in March left nine people dead and forty-five missing.

AFP reported that about one hundred fifty people on the doomed boat had previously been turned back from Yemen and tried the crossing again. That detail says a lot about how desperate the situation is for people stuck on this route.

Life on the Eastern Route

Eastern Route crossings usually start from the Djibouti coast, where smugglers load far more people than a small boat can carry. Passengers pay for a place and have little say about the weather, the crew or the number of bodies squeezed on board. Night departures make rescues harder and keep boats away from patrols.

Aid groups say the people making these trips come mainly from Ethiopia, where conflict and poverty push families to look for work abroad. Many walk for days to reach the Djibouti coast first, often with almost no money or water left. Some are returned from Yemen and then try again because going home feels impossible.

Local people in the Obock area have been helping with the response, and the IOM has described the coast as overwhelmed with bodies. Burials, identification and family tracing will take time, especially because many travelers carried no documents. Relatives in Ethiopia may wait weeks for confirmation about who was on board.

Humanitarian agencies are also worried about funding. The IOM's own statement stresses that donor money is essential for its work in Djibouti, from emergency medical care to shelter. Without it, response centres like the one in Obock can run short just when a disaster like this arrives.

A call for safer paths

IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement that no one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way. She added that these deaths cannot keep being treated as normal, and she asked governments and donors to act before the next tragedy.

The United Nations says more than two hundred seventeen thousand people have been displaced since fighting escalated on Yemen's west coast, which makes the trip even more dangerous for anyone landing there. You can follow related stories in our war section.

For now, the focus in Djibouti is on finding the missing and caring for survivors. The bigger question, whether safer legal routes ever open up, is one the IOM says cannot wait.