At least 139 migrants, among them 15 children, died when a boat carrying 305 people capsized off the coast of Djibouti, the UN’s migration agency has said. Dozens remain missing.
The vessel was travelling from Djibouti to Yemen when it went down near the port town of Obock on Thursday night, the Daily Mirror reported, citing BBC copy. About 82 people were rescued. NewsFirst, citing Sky News, places the sinking more precisely at Guhere, north of Obock, on the night of 8 October, and reports that all the survivors are Ethiopian nationals.
Why two different death tolls are in circulation
The two Sri Lankan filings carry different figures, and the discrepancy is a matter of sequence rather than contradiction. The International Organization for Migration revised its toll upward from 109 to 139 after 30 further bodies were recovered. NewsFirst’s account reflects the earlier 109 figure, alongside more than 116 people then listed as missing; the Daily Mirror’s carries the revised total.
What the agency said
IOM’s Djibouti mission chief, Alexandre Coissac, called the sinking a “stark reminder” of the dangers migrants face, and said the agency’s thoughts were with “the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives.”
The IOM said it was assisting 64 survivors at its response centre in Obock with healthcare and help re-establishing contact with their families. Local authorities are arranging burials.
Context
Tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa attempt the crossing of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait each year, seeking work and safety in Gulf countries, despite Yemen’s decade-long civil war. The IOM says it recorded more than 20,000 movements from Ethiopia into Djibouti since 10 September, and that over 900 migrants died or disappeared on the same route during 2025, a year in which attempted crossings rose 18 per cent. A comparable sinking in March 2026 killed nine people and left 45 missing.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the nationalities of those who died, as distinct from the survivors, or says whether the search for the missing is continuing. Neither reports what caused the vessel to capsize, whether anyone has been detained over the crossing, or how many of the 305 people aboard remain unaccounted for under the revised toll.
Both Sri Lankan outlets are reprinting international wire copy — the Daily Mirror from the BBC, NewsFirst from Sky News. Neither origin outlet is cited directly here, as neither was independently fetched.
Sources: Daily Mirror, NewsFirst.
