An overloaded migrant boat capsized off Djibouti's northern coast overnight on Oct. 8-9, and the confirmed death toll has since climbed past 139 — including at least 15 children — with 84 people still missing, the International Organization for Migration says.

The vessel was carrying an estimated 305 people when it went down near Guhere, north of the port town of Obock, as it attempted the crossing of the Gulf of Aden toward Yemen, according to Al Jazeera's reporting on the IOM figures. The agency's first toll, issued Oct. 11, put the count at 109 dead and 116 missing; it revised the number upward the same day as more bodies were recovered.

About 82 survivors — all Ethiopian nationals — are being cared for at IOM's Migrant Response Centre in Obock. The agency has cautioned that its official death count reflects only bodies recovered and buried by Djiboutian authorities, and that additional bodies may have been buried directly on the shore by surviving migrants, numbers that remain unverified, according to Khaleej Times. The IOM has said the toll "could still rise" as search and recovery operations continue.

A route migrants keep risking

The stretch of water between Djibouti and Yemen is part of the Horn of Africa's so-called Eastern Route — a corridor Ethiopian and other East African migrants use to reach Yemen and then, they hope, onward into Gulf states for work. It's considered one of the deadliest migration routes on Earth: the IOM says more than 900 migrants died or went missing along it in 2025 alone, even as Yemen's own civil war grinds on. IOM officials say roughly 150 of the people aboard this latest boat had previously been turned back from Yemen and were attempting the crossing again.

"A STARK REMINDER OF THE DANGERS FACED BY MIGRANTS ALONG THIS MIGRATION CORRIDOR."

IOM's Chief of Mission in Djibouti, Alexandre Coissac, said teams were "on the ground alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance," per Al-Monitor's coverage of the tragedy.

Djiboutian authorities and IOM crews are continuing to search for the missing, with identification of recovered remains ongoing. No single cause for the capsizing — overcrowding, weather or mechanical failure — had been officially confirmed as of the agency's latest public update.

The disaster is the latest in a string of fatal crossings this year along the same corridor, which has drawn less sustained global attention than Mediterranean migrant routes despite a comparable death toll. Humanitarian groups have repeatedly called for more legal pathways and greater search-and-rescue capacity in the Gulf of Aden, but funding for operations in the area remains limited.