IOM: Djibouti shipwreck toll rises to 139 dead with 84 still missing
11 October 2026
The UN migration agency IOM said on Sunday 11 October 2026 that at least 139 migrants died when their boat capsized off Djibouti.
The toll rose from 109 after 30 more bodies were recovered, and 84 people are still missing.
The boat carried 305 people from Djibouti towards Yemen and went down near Guehere, north of Obock, early on Friday; about 82 survived.
IOM called it one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded on the Eastern Route, from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula.
Since 10 September IOM has recorded more than 20,000 movements into Djibouti from Ethiopia.
IOM Director General Amy Pope asked governments and donors to act before the next boat goes down.
In plain words
IOM International Organization for Migration — The UN migration agency.
Eastern Route Migration route from the Horn of Africa to the Gulf — It runs from Djibouti, Somalia and Ethiopia across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and Saudi Arabia.