A devastating maritime tragedy off the northern coast of Djibouti has claimed the lives of at least 139 migrants – 15 of whom are children – and left dozens more unaccounted for, the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has confirmed. The incident unfolded late Thursday near Obock, a key coastal port town in Djibouti, when a crowded vessel carrying 305 migrants capsized mid-journey from Djibouti to Yemen. Rescue operations have so far pulled 82 survivors from the water, according to the IOM.
In the days following the disaster, the IOM revised its initial death toll of 109 upward after search teams recovered 30 additional bodies from the surrounding waters. Calling the incident a catastrophic loss of human life, Alexandre Coissac, IOM’s mission chief in Djibouti, emphasized that the tragedy serves as a stark warning of the constant, lethal risks that vulnerable migrants take when they set out in search of safer, more stable lives abroad. “Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives,” Coissac said.
All 82 survivors are Ethiopian nationals, and local government authorities have worked alongside aid organizations to provide them with immediate access to medical care. The IOM is currently hosting 64 of the survivors at its dedicated response center in Obock, where it offers not only healthcare but also support to reconnect survivors with their family members back home. Local officials have also stepped in to coordinate burial arrangements for those who died in the shipwreck.
The deadly capsizing is part of a growing crisis along one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes, which sees tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa undertake the perilous crossing every year. Driven by crushing poverty, widespread regional insecurity, and the accelerating harmful impacts of climate change, migrants continue to brave the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to reach Yemen, despite the country being mired in a devastating civil war that has stretched on for more than a decade. Thousands of Yemenis have themselves fled the ongoing conflict between Houthi fighters and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government to seek safety in Djibouti, and the UN refugee agency confirmed last month that the war has displaced more than 130,000 people across Yemen to date.
Recent migration tracking data highlights the sharp escalation of movement through the region. Since September 10 alone, the IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix has recorded more than 20,000 individual population movements from Ethiopia to Djibouti, as migrants prepare to attempt the crossing to Yemen en route to eventual resettlement in Gulf countries, where they hope to find formal employment and greater safety.
Statistics from the IOM show that fatalities along this route are rising in tandem with increasing migration attempts. In 2025, more than 900 migrants died or went missing while crossing this stretch of water, marking an 18% increase in deaths compared to previous periods, as the number of people attempting the journey also grew. This is not the first fatal incident this year: a similar shipwreck in March 2026 left nine people dead and another 45 missing.
The IOM added that it remains in close collaboration with Djibouti’s local authorities to deliver ongoing aid to migrants affected by the tragedy, while working to implement longer-term measures to prevent further loss of life both at sea and along overland migration routes. Djibouti, a small former French colony located just across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen, has become a major transit point for migrants moving from the Horn of Africa toward the Middle East in recent years.