NAIROBI – At least 16 people have died and 28 are missing in a new migrant boat disaster off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, the United Nations International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.
The accident happened about two weeks after another boat carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants sank off the coast of Djibouti, claiming several dozen lives. “Tragedy as a boat capsizes off the coast of Djibouti with 77 migrants on board including children,” the IOM said in a post on X, without specifying when the latest incident occurred.
“At least 28 missing. 16 have died,” he said, adding that the local IOM branch was “supporting local authorities with search and rescue efforts”. It was the latest fatal accident on the so-called Eastern Migration Route.
Another boat carrying more than 60 people sank off the coast of Godoria in northeastern Djibouti on April 8, according to the IOM and the Ethiopian embassy in Djibouti. The IOM said at the time that the bodies of 38 migrants, including children, had been recovered, while six other people were missing. The embassy in Djibouti said the boat was transporting Ethiopian migrants from Djibouti to war-torn Yemen. Every year, tens of thousands of African migrants brave the dangerous “Eastern Route” across the Red Sea and through war-torn Yemen to reach Saudi Arabia, fleeing conflict or natural disaster, or seeking better economic opportunities.
