Djibouti migrant shipwreck death toll climbs to 139 as 84 remain missing, IOM says

At least 139 migrants have died after a boat capsized off Djibouti, and another 84 people remain missing, the UN migration agency said on Sunday as search and recovery work continued. In a statement from IOM, the agency said the toll rose from 109 after 30 more bodies were recovered. The vessel was carrying 305 people from Djibouti toward Yemen when it went down near Guehere, north of Obock, on the night of Oct. 8–9. About 82 people survived. IOM called it one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded on the Eastern Route between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

“No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said. “We cannot keep treating these deaths as normal. Safe and legal pathways save lives. I am asking governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down.” IOM said it is providing emergency assistance to survivors at its Migrant Response Centre in Obock, including health care, psychosocial support, food, shelter and protection services.

UN News reported the same figures and quoted Alexandre Coissac, IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, who told journalists in Geneva on Oct. 6 that the country was facing “overlapping emergencies,” with migration moving in both directions. Since Sept. 10, IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix had recorded more than 20,000 movements into Djibouti from Ethiopia, while more than 3,700 refugees had arrived from Yemen and 539 Ethiopian migrants had returned from there over a similar period, UN News said.

BBC News said local authorities were arranging burials and that the survivors — all Ethiopian nationals — had medical care available. Coissac called the wreck “a devastating loss of life,” the BBC reported, adding that IOM’s thoughts were with survivors and families still without news of relatives. The BBC said IOM was assisting 64 survivors at the Obock centre, including help restoring contact with families, and was working with authorities to prevent further deaths at sea and on land.

Despite more than a decade of war in Yemen, migrants continue to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait driven by poverty, insecurity and climate pressures, the BBC said. IOM statistics cited by the broadcaster show more than 900 migrants died or went missing on the same route in 2025, during an 18 per cent increase in attempted journeys. In March 2026, nine people were killed and 45 went missing in a similar incident, according to the BBC.

UN News said more than 3,000 migrants were seen stranded along routes in Djibouti between Sept. 20 and 30, often without basic services. Djiboutian authorities were continuing search and recovery as fears grew for those still unaccounted for. The Gulf of Aden shores around Obock are both a departure point for voyages toward Yemen and a landing place for people rescued or returning the other way, UN News noted.

Pope’s appeal for safe, legal pathways came as IOM described Djibouti as confronting simultaneous inflows from Ethiopia and outflows toward the Gulf, plus arrivals fleeing Yemen’s conflict. The agency said it was working closely with local authorities while the death toll from the Guehere wreck continued to rise with each recovery.

Sources: International Organization for Migration (Oct. 11, 2026); UN News (Oct. 11, 2026); BBC News (Oct. 11, 2026).