At least 109 die as migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti

At least 109 migrants, including 15 children, died when a boat bound for Yemen capsized off Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration said. More than 116 people remain missing, according to Al Jazeera, as Djiboutian teams continue searching for survivors.

The vessel was carrying more than 300 people when it overturned between Thursday night and early Friday. The BBC reported that 350 people were aboard and that the boat sank near the port town of Obock. Al Jazeera, citing survivors quoted by the IOM, placed the incident near Guhere on Djibouti’s eastern coast.

More than 80 people survived, according to Al Jazeera. The survivors were all Ethiopian nationals. In a statement reported by the BBC, the IOM said the bodies recovered included 52 men, 42 women, nine girls and six boys.

“This is a devastating loss of life,” said Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti. “Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives.”

The IOM is assisting 64 survivors at its response centre in Obock, providing healthcare and helping them restore contact with their families, the BBC reported. Medical care is available to survivors, while local authorities are arranging burials for those who died. The agency said it was working closely with local authorities to support migrants and prevent deaths at sea and on land.

“Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,” Coissac said, according to Al Jazeera. He called the shipwreck “a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities.”

Each year, tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa make the crossing from Djibouti to Yemen, hoping to reach Gulf countries for work and safety, according to the IOM. The journey takes them across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which Al Jazeera said narrows to about 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) between Djibouti and Yemen.

Yemen’s civil war has lasted more than a decade, but migrants continue to travel there despite the conflict and wider regional instability. The BBC reported that poverty, insecurity and the growing effects of climate change help drive the journeys. Al Jazeera reported that fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi fighters had resumed last month and that several thousand people were also fleeing Yemen for Djibouti.

The IOM has recorded more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia into Djibouti since September 10. More than 900 migrants died or went missing on the route in 2025, the agency said. The BBC reported that attempts to make the journey rose 18% that year and that another sinking in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing.