The International Organization for Migration said Sunday that a migrant boat traveling from Djibouti to Yemen capsized on the night of October 8, killing at least 139 people and leaving 84 missing — one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever recorded on the migration corridor known as the Eastern Route.
Survivors told the IOM the vessel went down near Guhere, north of the Djibouti town of Obock, late on October 8 or in the early hours of October 9. It was carrying 305 people when it flipped over. One survivor said the boat "started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it," IOM Djibouti chief of mission Alexandre Coissac told AFP. At least 15 children are among the dead. Eighty-two people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, according to the UN agency.
The numbers are still moving as search and rescue continues. The IOM's initial tally was 109 dead, including 15 children, with 116 missing. After more bodies were recovered, the agency revised the toll to at least 139 dead and 84 missing. IOM officials told the Associated Press that some bodies buried by fellow migrants have not yet been included in the official count pending verification. Djiboutian authorities are continuing the search for the missing, while the IOM is providing emergency health care, food, shelter, and psychosocial support to survivors at its Obock Migrant Response Centre.
"This is a devastating loss of life. Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives," Coissac said in an IOM statement. He said agency teams were on the ground alongside Djiboutian authorities providing emergency assistance, adding that "this tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities."
IOM Director General Amy Pope went further: "No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way. We cannot keep treating these deaths as normal. Safe and legal pathways save lives. I am asking governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down."
Tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa travel through Djibouti every year, crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward Yemen, with most hoping to eventually find work in wealthy Gulf nations. According to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route in 2025 alone. The agency notes that escalating fighting in Yemen has not deterred the flow — and migrants who reach the country can face violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, exploitation, and trafficking. Coissac said he had spoken with one survivor who came from the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, where rebels have recently clashed again with the federal government.
Djiboutian rescue teams are still searching the wreck area for the 84 missing passengers, and local authorities are providing medical care to survivors and arranging burials for the dead. Within the UN system, Pope's unusually blunt statement is being read as direct pressure on governments and donors to open legal migration pathways and crack down on the smuggling networks that pack hundreds of people onto unseaworthy boats. Whether this disaster triggers tougher enforcement against overloaded smuggling boats on the Eastern Route — and tighter coastal controls on the Yemeni side — is what to watch in the coming days.