At Least 139 Dead as a Migrant Boat Capsizes off Djibouti
The International Organization for Migration says at least 139 people died, fifteen of them children, when a boat carrying 305 capsized near Obock on Thursday night. Eighty-four are missing and about 82 were rescued, all Ethiopian nationals. The toll was revised up from 109 after thirty more bodies were recovered.
It is expected to rise again. Alexandre Coissac, who heads the organisation’s mission in Djibouti, says the count includes only bodies buried by the Djiboutian authorities; others buried by migrants themselves are not yet counted pending verification. “This is a devastating loss of life,” he said. “Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives… This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities.” Sixty-four survivors are being helped at a response centre at Obock. The route is busier than it looks: the organisation logged more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia to Djibouti in the month to 10 September, and more than 900 people died or disappeared on this crossing during 2025, a year in which attempts rose by 18%. A comparable sinking in March killed nine with 45 missing. The detail that should stop a reader is the direction of travel. This boat was going from Djibouti to Yemen — people paying to cross into a country at war, through the Bab al-Mandab strait that the Houthis are threatening and that carries about a tenth of the world’s seaborne trade.