The UN migration agency has raised the death toll from a migrant boat capsizing off Djibouti to at least 139, after 30 more bodies were recovered over the weekend.
The International Organization for Migration said in a statement on Sunday that the vessel was carrying 305 people when it went down on the night of October 8-9 while travelling from Djibouti toward Yemen. More than 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, and are being assisted at the agency's migrant response centre in Obock with healthcare, food, shelter and psychosocial support.
Toll covers only officially buried bodies
Alexandre Coissac, the IOM's chief of mission in Djibouti, told the Associated Press that the official count includes only bodies buried by the Djibouti authorities. Other bodies were buried by survivors themselves and will not enter the official tally until they can be verified. He described victims being laid to rest without names in a common grave.
Coissac said the migrants boarded the boat on the evening of October 8 and that it sank soon after, close to shore, mainly because it was overcrowded. The agency shared video of personal belongings, including shoes, left on a beach, and said search-and-rescue operations were continuing, warning the toll could still rise.
One of the deadliest wrecks on the Eastern Route
The IOM called the sinking one of the deadliest shipwrecks on the Eastern Migration Route, the corridor across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa cross each year seeking work and safety in Gulf countries. Movement along the route has continued despite escalating fighting in Yemen. According to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route last year.
IOM Director-General Amy Pope said nobody boards such a boat unless they believe there is no other safe way, and urged governments and donors to expand safe and legal migration pathways before the next boat goes down.
Sources:
DTNext: 139 migrants, including children, die after boat capsizes off Djibouti
The International Organization for Migration said in a statement on Sunday that the vessel was carrying 305 people when it went down on the night of October 8-9 while travelling from Djibouti toward Yemen. More than 80 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals, and are being assisted at the agency's migrant response centre in Obock with healthcare, food, shelter and psychosocial support.
Toll covers only officially buried bodies
Alexandre Coissac, the IOM's chief of mission in Djibouti, told the Associated Press that the official count includes only bodies buried by the Djibouti authorities. Other bodies were buried by survivors themselves and will not enter the official tally until they can be verified. He described victims being laid to rest without names in a common grave.
Coissac said the migrants boarded the boat on the evening of October 8 and that it sank soon after, close to shore, mainly because it was overcrowded. The agency shared video of personal belongings, including shoes, left on a beach, and said search-and-rescue operations were continuing, warning the toll could still rise.
One of the deadliest wrecks on the Eastern Route
The IOM called the sinking one of the deadliest shipwrecks on the Eastern Migration Route, the corridor across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa cross each year seeking work and safety in Gulf countries. Movement along the route has continued despite escalating fighting in Yemen. According to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project, more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route last year.
IOM Director-General Amy Pope said nobody boards such a boat unless they believe there is no other safe way, and urged governments and donors to expand safe and legal migration pathways before the next boat goes down.
Sources:
DTNext: 139 migrants, including children, die after boat capsizes off Djibouti
