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At least 139 people have died and 84 more are missing after an overcrowded boat carrying 305 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti on the night of October 8–9, 2026. The vessel was travelling from Djibouti toward Yemen when it went down near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock. The United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirmed the toll on October 11, revising it sharply upward after 30 more bodies were recovered — and warned the number could still rise. The agency calls it one of the deadliest shipwrecks ever recorded on the Eastern Route, the migrant corridor linking the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
What happened that night
The boat sank very soon after the passengers boarded, according to survivor accounts reported by the IOM. It was carrying far more people than it could safely hold, and the overloaded vessel went down close to the shore. The IOM first reported 109 deaths and more than 116 people missing; the count rose to 139 dead and 84 missing once additional bodies were recovered along the coastline over the weekend. Some bodies had already been buried by migrants themselves in unmarked common graves, and officials say those will only be added to the official toll once they can be verified — so the true number may be higher still. About 82 people survived, and Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations as fears grow for those still unaccounted for.
Who was on board
All of the passengers were Ethiopian nationals, most of them men but with 42 women and at least 15 children among the recovered dead — including nine girls and six boys. They were heading to Yemen with the hope of eventually reaching wealthier Gulf countries for work. Alexandre Coissac, the IOM's chief of mission in Djibouti, said some of the survivors had previously been turned back from Yemen and were attempting the crossing again. At the IOM's Migrant Response Centre in Obock, survivors are receiving medical care, food, shelter, and psychosocial support; some already know that family members died in the wreck, while others have been given phones to call home and tell their loved ones they are alive. Local authorities are arranging dignified burials for the dead.
Why the journey continues despite everything
The Eastern Route runs from the Horn of Africa through Djibouti and across the narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait — roughly 30 kilometres at its tightest — to Yemen, and onward toward Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Poverty, insecurity, and the growing impacts of climate change keep pushing tens of thousands of people onto this corridor every year. The IOM's tracking system recorded more than 20,000 migrant movements from Ethiopia into Djibouti since September 10 alone. What makes the persistence of these journeys so striking is that the destination itself is dangerous: Yemen is living through its most serious escalation of fighting between Saudi Arabia-backed government forces and the Iran-backed Houthis since a UN-brokered truce largely held in 2022. Migrants who reach Yemen face violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, exploitation, and human trafficking. Yet the journeys continue — smugglers pack overloaded boats at night to avoid detection, and desperate people keep boarding them.
A route that keeps killing
This disaster is not an isolated tragedy but the latest peak in a grim, worsening trend. The IOM's Missing Migrants Project recorded more than 900 migrants dead or missing along this same corridor in 2025, even as the number of attempted crossings rose by 18 percent. In March 2026, another shipwreck off Djibouti left nine people dead and 45 missing. Djibouti is now confronting movement in both directions: even as migrants keep heading toward Yemen and the Gulf, thousands of Yemenis are fleeing the fighting in the opposite direction, with the UN refugee agency noting last month that the conflict has displaced more than 130,000 people inside Yemen.
What the UN and the African Union are saying now
IOM Director General Amy Pope said no one boards a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way, warning that these deaths cannot keep being treated as normal and calling on governments and donors to open safe, legal pathways before the next boat goes down. The African Union has also mourned the dead and reaffirmed its commitment to protecting migrants, particularly children. IOM teams are on the ground alongside Djiboutian authorities providing emergency assistance, but the agency warns that growing humanitarian needs are outpacing the limited funding available. Search operations along the coast near Obock continue, and the official toll is expected to be updated as recovery efforts proceed.
Follow Global Insight for updates on the rescue operation and the Eastern Route crisis.