At least 109 migrants, including 15 children, have died and more than 116 remain missing after a boat carrying about 350 people capsized while travelling from Djibouti to Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Sunday.
The boat overturned overnight between October 8 and 9 near Guhare, north of Obock, a coastal city in Djibouti, according to survivor accounts cited by the UN migration agency.
More than 80 people survived the disaster, all of them Ethiopian nationals, the IOM said. The bodies recovered included 52 men, 42 women and 15 children, among them nine girls and six boys.
“Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,” said Alexander Kwasak, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti.
The tragedy highlights the dangers migrants face along the route as they attempt to reach Yemen in search of economic opportunities, Kwasak said.
Djiboutian authorities are continuing search-and-rescue operations, while local officials are providing medical care to survivors and arranging burials for those who died, the IOM said.
The incident comes as Yemen faces a renewed escalation in fighting between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, raising concerns about the country’s security and the wider humanitarian crisis.
The IOM has warned that displacement in Yemen has risen sharply, with its recent data showing the number of displaced people increasing to 200,000 from 76,000 in mid-September.
More than 3,700 people had travelled by sea from Yemen to Djibouti by the previous week, according to the agency.
The disaster also comes amid renewed fighting in Ethiopia last month, marking the most significant escalation in violence since the Tigray war.
