109 Migrants Dead, 116 Missing After Boat Capsizes Off Djibouti, UN Agency Says

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2026

It happened in the dark, on a stretch of water that has quietly become one of the most dangerous migration crossings on earth. A boat packed with roughly 350 people capsized during the night of October 8 to 9 near Guhere, just north of the Djiboutian port town of Obock, while sailing from Djibouti toward Yemen. When the International Organization for Migration, the UN’s migration agency, announced the toll on Sunday, it was one of the worst shipwrecks on this route in recent years: at least 109 people dead, and more than 116 still missing.

02 What we know so far

The picture comes from survivor accounts, which the IOM cited in its announcement. The boat went down near Guhere, north of Obock — the small port town on the Gulf of Tadjoura where the crossing boats slip out to sea. Among the 109 bodies recovered were 52 men, 42 women and 15 children — nine girls and six boys. More than 80 people survived the wreck, and every one of them is an Ethiopian national, according to the agency. A spokesperson for the Ethiopian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Reuters reported.

“This is a devastating loss of life,” said Alexandre Coissac, the IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti. “Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives.”

As of Sunday, the search had not stopped. Djiboutian authorities were still running search and rescue operations in the waters off Guhere, and with more than 116 people unaccounted for, the death toll could still climb. The IOM said its teams deployed alongside the authorities to provide emergency aid — the kind of joint response that has become routine on this coastline: first the survivors are pulled from the water, then the waiting begins for the families still without news.

03 The crossing they were trying to make

The people on board were attempting one of the oldest migrant routes in the world: across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait from Djibouti to Yemen, then onward toward the Gulf states in search of work. Every year, tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa travel through Djibouti trying to make exactly that crossing. The IOM says poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change keep driving people onto the boats, even as instability across the Middle East makes the journey more dangerous every year.

The numbers behind the route have been climbing fast. Since September 10 alone, the IOM has recorded more than 20,000 crossings from Ethiopia into Djibouti — people already on the move toward this same strait. That flow shows no sign of slowing, and neither does the dying: more than 900 migrants died or went missing along the sea route to Yemen last year, according to the agency.

04 The rescue effort

Djiboutian authorities are continuing search and rescue operations in the waters off Guhere, with the missing-person count still above 116 and families waiting for word. IOM teams were deployed alongside Djiboutian authorities to provide emergency aid, and the agency says it is assisting 64 survivors at its Migrant Response Centre in Obock — food, shelter, medical care, and help tracing relatives.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities,” said Coissac, the IOM chief of mission in Djibouti.

05 A corridor that keeps taking lives

There is no real mystery about what happens next on this route. Another boat will be loaded in the dark near Obock. Another 300 people will be told the crossing takes a few hours. Some will make it to Yemen; some will be intercepted, stranded, or lost; and the toll of the dead will grow a little larger. The sea route to Yemen has killed and disappeared more than 900 people in a single year, and yet the boats keep coming — because, as the IOM keeps saying, what waits behind them is poverty, insecurity, and a climate that keeps pushing them off the land.

The story of the night of October 8–9 isn’t really about one boat. It’s about 350 people who decided the water was safer than whatever they were leaving. One hundred and nine of them were wrong. More than 116 are still unaccounted for. The survivors — every one of them Ethiopian — are sitting in a response centre in Obock right now, having survived a night that most of the world will never hear about.

Watch the Obock Migrant Response Centre in the coming days — that’s where 64 survivors are receiving emergency aid, and where the search-and-rescue operation will determine whether the missing number shrinks. The deeper problem isn’t going anywhere: the IOM says poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change keep driving people onto the boats despite mounting instability across the Middle East. Until that changes, Obock’s coastline will keep being a place where boats leave in the dark.

Elsewhere overnight: the Guardians closed out the ALDS, the NBA preseason rolled on Saturday night, and Cleveland’s comeback story keeps writing itself. More from the newsroom here.