Children among at least 139 dead after migrant boat capsizes off Djibouti coast

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.

Toll only includes those buried by authorities, says UN migration agency

The Associated Press

· Posted: Oct 11, 2026 1:47 PM EDT | Last Updated: 16 minutes ago

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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.

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 Associated Press.

"What is terrible is that they were buried with no names, in a common grave, like in a war situation," Coissac said. "They all have a mother, a father, and we may never learn what happened."

Coissac said the migrants boarded the ship in the evening of Oct. 8 and that it sank very soon after, close to the shore, "mainly because it was overcrowded."

"The local authorities did their best," Coissac said, "but they were overwhelmed with all the bodies that kept coming at once towards the shore."

He said authorities were bringing the surviving migrants to the IOM rescue centre in Obock where they would receive medical assistance after swallowing sea water, and psychological support.

A pair of trousers believed to belong to a migrant lies on the shore near Guhere. (Kennedy Omondi Okoth/International Organization for Migration/Reuters)

"They're all in a state of shock," said Coissac, who visited the area of the shipwreck Saturday. "I tried to talk to some of them, but it's very difficult."

Some of the migrants in the IOM centre 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.

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.

The death toll from the #Djibouti shipwreck has risen to 139, with 84 people still missing. As search and recovery efforts continue, IOM is providing emergency assistance to survivors. Every life lost is one too many. Read the latest updates here: https://t.co/LJjeAtSer2 https://t.co/VXfiv3TeFA

—UNmigration

The boat was travelling 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.

The Geneva-based UN migration agency said the vessel had 305 people on board and warned that the death toll could still rise.

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.

'Safe and legal pathways save lives'

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

That movement has continued despite newly escalating fighting in Yemen, on the other side of the strait.

"This is a devastating loss of life," said Coissac. "This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities."

Members of the International Organization for Migration receive migrants near Guhere. (Kennedy Omondi Okoth/International Organization for Migration/Reuters)

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 Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

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.

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Over 900 migrants died or went missing along the route last year, according to IOM's Missing Migrants Project.

"No one gets into a boat like that unless they believe there is no other safe way," IOM director general Amy Pope said. "We 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."