Shipwreck off the coast of Djibouti: 139 migrants dead, including 15 children, and 84 missing

At least 139 people, including fifteen children, have died and 84 others are missing following the sinking of a boat that departed from Djibouti for Yemen on the night of October 8-9, 2026, near Guhere, north of the port of Obock. The toll was announced on October 11 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as cited by the Associated Press and Al Jazeera.

The boat was carrying 305 people, according to the IOM. More than 80 survivors, all Ethiopian nationals, are being cared for at the organization's relief center in Obock, where they are receiving medical care and psychological support. The vessel sank very shortly after departure, a short distance from the shore. The IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, Alexandre Coissac, attributes the shipwreck to the boat being overloaded.

This count remains provisional: it only includes the bodies buried by the Djiboutian authorities. Other victims were buried by the migrants themselves and will only be added after verification. Search operations were still ongoing on October 11.

Twenty kilometers of sea, hundreds of deaths per year

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is only about twenty kilometers wide at its narrowest point between Djibouti and Yemen. This proximity makes the so-called Eastern Route one of the most frequented and deadliest migratory corridors on the continent. Last year, more than 500,000 people attempted to reach Yemen via this route, and at least 900 died or went missing, according to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project. Since September 10, 2026, the organization has recorded more than 20,000 arrivals in Djibouti from Ethiopia.

These women and men are not heading for Europe: they are aiming for the construction sites and homes of the Gulf countries, where labor from migrants from the Horn of Africa is massively employed and poorly protected. The Director General of the IOM, Amy Pope, reiterated that no one boards such a vessel if they believe they have another safe path.

A corridor now being crossed in both directions

The paradox of this shipwreck lies in the current geography. Fighting resumed in September 2026 in Yemen between government forces and the Houthis, and several thousand Yemenis are fleeing toward Djibouti: at least 2,000 of them have received aid there in recent weeks, according to the IOM. Ethiopians are therefore dying while trying to reach a country whose inhabitants are leaving in the opposite direction, due to the lack of a legal path for work in the Gulf.

None of the capitals involved have, at this stage, announced the opening of a regulated labor migration channel. As long as the only option remains an overloaded boat departing from Obock, this corridor will continue to fuel death tolls of this nature.