12.10.2026 01:22
A boat carrying more than 300 migrants that set off from Djibouti to Yemen capsized in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The United Nations International Organization for Migration announced that at least 139 people, 15 of them children, lost their lives in the disaster, while 84 people are missing. More than 80 migrants, all Ethiopian, were rescued, while search and rescue efforts continue in the region.
A boat heading toward Yemen and carrying more than 300 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti.
139 DEAD, 84 MISSING
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced that as a result of the boat capsizing, at least 139 people, including 15 children, lost their lives, while 84 people are still missing.
According to the IOM statement based on the accounts of survivors of the accident, the incident occurred between Thursday night and Friday morning off the Guhere area on Djibouti's Gulf of Aden coast, near the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
After the boat, which was reported to have set off from Djibouti toward Yemen and was carrying more than 300 migrants, capsized, a search-and-rescue operation was launched in the area. It was reported that as a result of operations carried out by Djiboutian teams, more than 80 people, all said to be Ethiopian, were rescued.
BODIES BURIED BY MIGRANTS NOT VERIFIED
Alexandre Coissac, head of the IOM Djibouti mission, expressed great sorrow over the loss of life and said, "Our teams continue their work on the ground together with local authorities to provide emergency assistance."
Coissac also stressed that the announced death toll covers only those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Noting that some migrants buried other people who lost their lives, Coissac stated that these bodies will not be included in official death toll statistics until they are verified by authorities. Search-and-rescue and emergency assistance efforts continue in the area.
AMONG THE MOST DANGEROUS ROUTES USED BY THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS
The Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, said to be about 20 kilometers wide at its narrowest point between Djibouti and Yemen, is known as one of the dangerous routes used by thousands of migrants migrating through the Horn of Africa. In addition to being a crossing point for migrants to Yemen, Djibouti also serves as an asylum and transit route for thousands of people fleeing renewed intensifying conflict in Yemen.