By Hanad Abdi - Reporter
Djibouti, 12 October 2026 – At least 139 migrants have died and 84 others remain unaccounted for after a boat carrying 305 people capsized off the coast of Obock, Djibouti, according to the UN migration agency (IOM).
The boat, which departed Djibouti bound for Yemen, sank near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, during the night of 8 to 9 October, according to survivors.
The IOM initially reported that 109 people, including 15 children, had died and more than 116 were missing, before the death toll was updated to 139. Officials fear the number could rise further, as the current figure includes only the bodies buried by Djiboutian authorities.
It is one of the deadliest maritime disasters ever recorded off Djibouti’s coast, authorities added.
More than 80 survivors are all Ethiopian nationals, the IOM said. The agency is caring for 64 of them at its Migrant Response Centre in Obock, providing medical care, temporary shelter, food, and help to contact their families.
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Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, who visited the site of the disaster on Saturday, said local authorities had done everything they could but were overwhelmed by the bodies washing up on the shore all at once.
Some survivors have learned that members of their families died, while others were given phones to tell their relatives they are alive. Footage released by the IOM showed personal belongings, such as shoes, scattered along the beach. The cause of the shipwreck has not yet been disclosed.
The Obock coast, on the edge of the Gulf of Aden, is one of the main departure points of the “Eastern Route,” which migrants from the Horn of Africa take to Yemen and onward to the Gulf states. Every year, tens of thousands of migrants make the journey in search of work in countries such as Saudi Arabia.
More than 900 migrants died or went missing on the route last year, according to data from the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
The tragedy comes as Djibouti faces overlapping crises. In September alone, more than 20,000 Ethiopian migrants entered the country, according to the IOM.