A boat carrying 305 migrants toward Yemen capsized near Guhere, north of Djibouti’s port city of Obock, killing at least 139 people and leaving 84 missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Eighty-two people survived; all are Ethiopian.¹

The death toll rose from an initial assessment of 109 as more bodies were recovered. At least 15 children were among the dead, while search operations continued off Djibouti’s coast. The IOM was providing medical care, food, shelter and psychological support to 64 survivors at its migrant response centre in Obock.¹

One account focused on the scale of the emergency and the route’s wider human cost. It described the crossing as part of the Eastern Route, used by migrants from East Africa seeking work and better conditions in Gulf countries despite Yemen’s continuing conflict. More than 900 migrants died or disappeared on that route in 2025, the IOM said.¹

A second account added a possible explanation for the sinking: Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s mission chief in Djibouti, said overcrowding may have contributed after survivors reported that the vessel began taking on water at the stern shortly after departure. “This tragedy brutally reminds us of the dangers migrants face along this route,” he said.²

The two accounts converge on the toll and on the route’s enduring pull. They differ mainly in emphasis: one stresses the care and recovery effort after the wreck, while the other points to conditions aboard the boat and the pressures—poverty, armed conflict and lack of employment—that lead people to attempt the journey. Some victims were buried in unidentified mass graves, while other burials reported by migrants had not yet entered the official count.²