Symbolic imageDeath toll reaches 139 after migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti
A boat carrying 305 migrants to Yemen capsized off Djibouti, killing at least 139 people, the IOM says. Another 84 are missing.
The boat went down overnight from Thursday, 8 October, to Friday, 9 October, near Guhere, north of the fishing town of Obock. The IOM called it one of the deadliest maritime disasters recorded in the Horn of Africa. Among the dead are 15 children. Only 82 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals. Local authorities are continuing search-and-rescue operations and arranging burials.
Aid for survivors
The IOM is providing medical care, psychosocial support, food and basic supplies to 64 survivors at its Migrant Response Centre in Obock. Its chief of mission in Djibouti, Alexandre Coissac, called the sinking "a devastating loss of life".
A dangerous corridor
The crossing belongs to the Eastern Route, one of the world's busiest migration corridors. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly from Ethiopia and Somalia, travel it each year toward Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, often on unseaworthy boats run by smuggling networks.