{"id":8084,"date":"2026-10-11T23:40:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8084"},"modified":"2026-10-11T23:40:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T23:40:48","slug":"139-migrants-including-children-die-after-boat-capsizes-off-djibouti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8084","title":{"rendered":"139 migrants, including children, die after boat capsizes off Djibouti"},"content":{"rendered":"
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International Organization for Migration (IOM) workers receive migrants after a boat carrying about 305 people capsized while sailing from Djibouti to Yemen, leaving at least 109 migrants, including 15 children, dead and more than 116 missing, according to the UN IOM on Oct. 11, near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, Djibouti. Reuters-Yonhap<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GENEVA \u2014 At least 139 people, including children, have died after a boat carrying more than 300 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti in east Africa, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.<\/p>\n

That number only includes those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Others have been buried by the migrants themselves but they won’t be added to the official count until authorities can verify the bodies, Alexandre Coissac, IOM Chief of Mission in Djibouti, told the AP via the phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is terrible is that they were buried with no names, in a common grave, like in a war situation,\u201d Coissac said. \u201cThey all have a mother, a father, and we may never learn what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coissac said the migrants boarded the ship in the evening of Oct. 8 and that it sank very soon after, close to the shore, \u201cmainly because it was overcrowded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe local authorities did their best,\u201d Coissac said, \u201cbut they were overwhelmed with all the bodies that kept coming at once towards the shore.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said authorities were bringing the surviving migrants to the IOM rescue center in Obock where they receive medical assistance after swallowing sea water, and psychological support.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re all in a state of shock,\u201d Coissac, who visited the area of the shipwreck Saturday, said. \u201cI tried to talk to some of them but it’s very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the migrants in the IOM center are already aware that their family members died during the shipwreck. Others were given access to phones to call loved ones back home to notify them they are alive.<\/p>\n

At least 84 people remained missing in one of the deadliest shipwrecks yet on the popular but perilous crossing from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, where many migrants seek work in rich Gulf nations.<\/p>\n

The boat was traveling from Djibouti to Yemen when it capsized on Thursday night or Friday morning, according to the IOM. More than 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, it said.<\/p>\n

The Geneva-based U.N. migration agency said the vessel had 305 people on board and warned that the death toll could still rise.<\/p>\n

Personal items likely belonging to the migrants, including shoes, were seen on a beach in a video shared by IOM. Rescue work continued as fears grew for the missing.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa travel every year through Djibouti and across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait towards Gulf countries in search of safety and economic opportunities, the IOM said in its statement.<\/p>\n

That movement has continued despite newly escalating fighting in Yemen , on the other side of the strait.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a devastating loss of life,\u201d said Coissac. \u201cThis tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, at least 2,000 Yemenis have received aid in Djibouti as the fighting has escalated in Yemen between the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized government and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.<\/p>\n

That’s the opposite direction from the movement of the migrants who died in the shipwreck and the typical migration patterns of recent years: The tens of thousands who cross from eastern Africa toward Yemen each year have typically been looking for work in places like Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Over 900 migrants died or went missing along the route last year, according to IOM\u2019s Missing Migrants Project.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way,\u201d IOM Director-General Amy Pope said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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International Organization for Migration (IOM) workers receive migrants after a boat carrying about 305 people capsized while sailing from Djibouti to Yemen, leaving at least 109 migrants, including 15 children, dead and more than 116 missing, according to the UN IOM on Oct. 11, near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, Djibouti. Reuters-Yonhap…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_templately_pack_id":"","_templately_imported_at":"","_templately_source":"","_templately_import_session_id":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","category-trending-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t