At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, died when an overcrowded boat capsized off the northern coast of Djibouti during the night of Oct. 8-9, 2026, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
The agency also lists another 84 people as missing. About 305 people were aboard the boat, which left Djibouti for Yemen, according to survivor accounts cited by the agency. About 82 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals. Djibouti is a small Horn of Africa nation bordering Ethiopia.
30 More Bodies, Toll Jumps
The agency revised its count sharply upward on Sunday, Oct. 11, after 30 more bodies were found. The earlier tally stood at 109 dead and 116 missing. The boat went down near Guhere, north of the fishing town of Obock.
Alexandre Coissac, the IOM chief of mission in Djibouti, said the migrants boarded on the evening of Oct. 8 and the boat sank shortly afterward, close to shore. He said overcrowding was primarily the cause. Survivors told the agency the vessel went down backward the moment they climbed aboard. About 150 of those on board had been turned back from Yemen before and were making a second attempt, Coissac said.
Buried With No Names
Coissac traveled to the area of the shipwreck on Saturday, Oct. 10. He spoke about the burials.
“What is terrible is that they were buried with no names, in a common grave, like in a war situation,” he said.
The official count covers only those buried by Djiboutian authorities, Coissac said. Migrants buried other bodies themselves, and those will not be added until authorities verify them. Of the first 109 bodies recovered, 52 were men, 42 were women and 15 were children — nine girls and six boys. The agency warned that the toll could still climb.
Local responders could not keep pace with the bodies arriving at the shore, Coissac said. An IOM video shows personal items, including shoes, on a beach near the site. Djiboutian authorities are continuing search-and-rescue operations, treating survivors and arranging burials.
64 Survivors Treated in Obock
IOM is helping 64 survivors at its Migrant Response Centre in Obock. The center provides healthcare, psychosocial support, temporary shelter, food and protection services. Staff also help survivors reestablish contact with their families.
Some survivors were treated after swallowing seawater. Others got phone access to tell relatives at home they are alive. Several already know that family members drowned.
Coissac described the survivors he met as deeply shaken. He said the dead all had a mother and a father, and that what happened to them may never be known.
922 Deaths in One Year
The IOM report “Migration Along the Eastern Route,” covering January to December 2025, counted 922 deaths and disappearances on the route, up from 558 in 2024. The agency described 2025 as the deadliest year on record for the route since its Missing Migrants Project began in 2014.
Tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis, travel through Djibouti every year. They cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward Gulf countries, above all Saudi Arabia. IOM points to poverty, insecurity and the deepening effects of climate change as drivers.
Economic reasons were primarily behind 89 percent of the movements recorded along the Eastern Route in 2024, and 7 percent were linked to conflict, violence or persecution. The route carries intense heat, overloaded boats and the risk of drowning in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Migrants who reach Yemen can face violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, exploitation and trafficking, the agency said.
The agency has logged more than 20,000 movements into Djibouti from Ethiopia since Sept. 10. The crossings are continuing amid intensified fighting across the strait between Yemen’s Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The traffic now runs both ways, and the agency has assisted at least 2,000 Yemenis in Djibouti.
The UN refugee agency said in September 2026 that the conflict in Yemen displaced more than 130,000 people across the country, and that thousands of Yemenis are fleeing to Djibouti. An earlier shipwreck off Djibouti in March 2026 killed nine people and left 45 missing. The agency called the Oct. 8-9 sinking one of the deadliest yet recorded on the Eastern Route linking the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
IOM Director General Amy Pope pressed governments and donors for safe and legal migration channels, and said deaths on this scale should not be accepted as routine.
“No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,” she said.