At least 139 migrants dead after boat capsizes off Djibouti, UN agency says

At least 139 migrants, among them children, died when an overcrowded boat bound for Yemen capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Sunday, according to PBS NewsHour and BBC News.

The vessel had 305 people on board, the U.N. migration agency said. BBC News reported that 15 of the dead were children and that the boat went down near the port town of Obock on Thursday night. PBS NewsHour, publishing an Associated Press report, said the IOM placed the sinking on Thursday night or Friday morning. The AP quoted IOM Djibouti mission chief Alexandre Coissac as saying the passengers boarded on the evening of Oct. 8 and the boat sank soon afterward, close to shore, largely because it was overcrowded.

The IOM raised its toll from 109 after 30 more bodies were recovered, BBC News reported. The BBC's headline still carried the earlier figure. According to the AP, at least 84 people were still missing, and the agency warned that the number of dead could rise.

Coissac told the AP that the official count covers only those buried by Djiboutian authorities. Other victims were buried by fellow migrants in a common grave without names and will not be counted until authorities can verify the bodies, he said. He added that local officials were overwhelmed by the number of bodies reaching the shore.

Both outlets said all survivors were Ethiopian nationals. The AP put their number at more than 80, and the BBC said about 82 were rescued. The BBC reported that the IOM was assisting 64 survivors at its center in Obock, where, according to the AP, they are receiving medical care and psychological support. Coissac told the AP the survivors were in shock.

"This is a devastating loss of life," Coissac said, as reported by both outlets.

The route from the Horn of Africa across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Yemen is used by tens of thousands of migrants each year. Many are trying to reach Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia in search of work. Migrants have kept making the crossing even as fighting in Yemen has escalated. The IOM's Missing Migrants Project recorded more than 900 deaths or disappearances along the route last year, according to both outlets.

The BBC reported that a similar incident in March 2026 left nine people dead and 45 missing. It also said the IOM had tracked more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia to Djibouti since Sept. 10.

IOM Director-General Amy Pope urged governments and donors to act. "No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way," she said, according to the AP.

Compiled by True News from reporting by PBS NewsHour and BBC News. Each outlet's original story is linked below.

Originally published by True News: https://truenews.bagleyenterprises.net/stories/44