At least 139 people have lost their lives after a vessel carrying migrants capsized near the Djibouti coastline, with 84 others still unaccounted for, according to the International Organization for Migration, as crews pressed on with search and rescue efforts in the wake of one of the most lethal wrecks documented along the Eastern Migration Route.
A Sunday communiqué from the UN migration agency placed the overall fatality count at 139, after 30 more bodies were recovered from the site, raising the figure from an earlier tally of 109. A vessel holding 305 passengers overturned in waters off Guehere, a location north of Obock along the Djiboutian coast, during the night spanning October 8 into October 9, while making the crossing from Djibouti toward Yemen.
Rescue teams deployed by Djiboutian authorities pressed on with efforts to locate the unaccounted for, even as roughly 82 people had already been pulled to safety following the disaster. At its Migrant Response Centre in Obock, the IOM deployed aid for those who survived, covering medical care, mental health support, food, temporary shelter, and protection services.
The IOM's spokesperson called on governments and donor organisations to broaden pathways for safe and legal migration, while also pressing for action to reduce deaths along perilous routes, noting that people who board overcrowded vessels typically do so because they see no viable alternative and that such fatalities have accumulated over a sustained period. Addressing governments and donors, she urged action to head off the next maritime disaster before another boat carrying migrants goes down.
Documented routes that meet legal and humanitarian standards have been linked to reduced mortality among those attempting to cross borders, according to the agency.
Annually, tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa travel through Djibouti along what is referred to as the Eastern Route, navigating the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into Yemen as part of a broader passage toward Gulf countries where they seek employment, safety, and more stable living conditions — a route that the latest incident has returned to public attention. Economic hardship, instability across the region, and the expanding footprint of climate-related pressures remain among the factors pushing people toward a route that carries substantial hazards, both on the open water and upon arrival in Yemen.
Displacement Tracking Matrix data gathered by the IOM puts the number of people travelling from Ethiopia into Djibouti at upwards of 20,000 individual crossings logged in the period from 10 September onward, a volume that reflects the sustained flow of movement through that corridor.
Those who reach Yemen after the journey face a further set of documented risks — armed violence, prolonged detention without legal recourse, exploitation, and trafficking — pressures that add to an already overstretched humanitarian environment in the country.
Deaths and disappearances tied to the corridor have kept accumulating over time. Fatalities and disappearances among people making the crossing topped 900 in 2025, according to tracking data held by the IOM's Missing Migrants Project, a period during which the total number of journeys along that route climbed by 18 per cent. A vessel that went down near the coastline that month claimed nine lives, with a further 45 people unaccounted for in the waters that followed.
Coordination with Djiboutian authorities formed a central part of the IOM's stated approach, aimed at bolstering rescue efforts and reducing the loss of migrant lives both inland and along coastal waters. The agency indicated that demand for humanitarian assistance was climbing faster than the pool of available resources.
A call went out from the organisation to international donors and partners, asking them to bolster Djibouti's capacity for search and rescue operations while also widening the legal avenues available to people attempting these crossings, with the aim of lowering the hazards those travellers encounter along the way.
