More than one hundred migrants are dead including 15 children after boat capsizes off Djibouti

Published: 08:17 EDT, 11 October 2026 | Updated: 08:19 EDT, 11 October 2026 At least 109 migrants including 15 children are dead after a boat capsized off Djibouti.More than 116 remain missing following the incident near Guhere, north of the fishing town of Obock, Djibouti, the UN's International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said, citing survivor accounts. The boat was carrying about 305 people and capsized while sailing from Djibouti to Yemen during the night of October 8-9.More than 80 people survived the shipwreck, all of whom are Ethiopian nationals. Among the bodies recovered after the boat capsized, 52 are men, 42 are women and 15 are children, including nine girls and six boys, the UN agency said.'Our teams are on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance,' said IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti Alexandre Coissac.'This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities.'The IOM is providing healthcare, psychosocial, food and other assistance at its migrant response centre in Obock. A member of the International Organization for Migration inspects the remains of a boat that capsized at Gehere beach, near Obock, while carrying migrants to Yemen in April Workers from the IOM receive people fleeing Yemen after their boats docked at the shores of Obock in SeptemberThe Ethiopian and Djibouti governments have been approached for comment. Djiboutian authorities are continuing search-and-rescue operations and local authorities are also providing medical care to survivors and arranging burials for the deceased.The route from the Horn of Africa to the Arab Peninsula is used by hundreds of thousands of migrants a year, mainly Ethiopians and Somalis, making it one of the busiest migration paths in the world.The eastern route is one of the most dangerous globally, forcing users to walk long distances in severe heat or travel on packed boats at the hands of smugglers. Yemen is experiencing the most serious escalation in fighting between Saudi Arabia-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis since a UN-brokered truce largely halted cross-border attacks in 2022. The renewed conflict could reshape control in Yemen, with implications for Red Sea shipping lanes.The IOM described the crisis sparked by the fighting as alarming, with displacement figures surging to 200,000 from 76,000 in mid-September, according to data released last week.More than 3,700 people have fled Yemen by sea to Djibouti, according to the IOM.Fighting also broke out in Ethiopia last month in the biggest escalation of violence since the Tigray war.