Four migrant boats sink off Djibouti and Yemen, leaving over 180 missing

Four boats carrying migrants have sunk off Djibouti and Yemen, killing at least one person and leaving more than 180 missing, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told AFP on Friday.

The sinkings occurred late on Thursday along a route that is increasingly used by Ethiopians hoping to find work in Gulf countries or escape conflict.

“Over 180 migrants are missing after four boats sank last night off the coasts of Djibouti and Yemen,” the IOM said.

Two of the vessels, one believed to be carrying at least 30 people and the other roughly 150, were missing off the coast of Yemen, according to IOM Country Chief of Mission Abdusattor Esoev.

“We are talking about 186 people that may have unfortunately perished in the sea,” he told AFP.

The majority of those onboard were believed to be Ethiopian migrants, he said, although five were thought to be Yemeni crew members. At least 57, from both boats, were women.

“We are working with authorities to see if we can find any survivors, but I’m afraid we may not have any,” Esoev said.

The other two vessels capsized due to strong winds off the coast of Djibouti, he said, based on information he had received.

“One or two migrants have reportedly lost their lives, but the rest of them were rescued,” he told AFP, without giving more details. He said that his IOM colleagues in Djibouti were assisting those who had been rescued.

“The number of people arriving in Yemen from Ethiopia and Djibouti is unfortunately not decreasing,” Esoev said.

He added many migrants undertaking the route originated from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, ravaged by war between 2020 and 2022.

Eastern route

It is one of the world’s most dangerous migrant routes, according to the IOM, which documented more than 60,000 migrant arrivals in Yemen in 2024.

An IOM report published on Thursday showed the number of those attempting the “eastern route” had risen 13 per cent in 2024, to 446,194.

Women and girls represented a third of those embarking on the voyage, an increase from 2023, with the number of boys taking the journey falling.

The majority of those undertaking the voyage did so for economic reasons, it said.

Last year saw six major shipwrecks, the IOM said, “caused by using unseaworthy boats, overfilling of vessels, travelling in poor maritime conditions and smugglers forcing people to disembark at sea”.

Last month, 20 Ethiopians were killed when their boat capsized off Yemen.