At least 109 migrants including 15 youngsters have died and dozens more are still lacking after a boat sank off the coast of Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.
The boat was travelling from Djibouti to Yemen with 350 people on board, when it capsized close to the port city of Obock on Thursday evening. Around 80 people were rescued, the IOM said.
IOM’s Djibouti mission chief Alexandre Coissac called the tragedy a “stark reminder” of the risks migrants face while in search of a new life elsewhere.
Tens of hundreds of migrants from the Horn of Africa make the perilous journey each yr hoping to attain Gulf international locations for security and work, according to the UN company.
In a assertion on Friday, the organisation said 52 males, 42 ladies, 9 women and six boys were among the our bodies recovered.
“This is a devastating loss of life,” Coissac said.
“Our thoughts are with the survivors and the families who have lost loved ones or remain without news of their relatives,” he added.
Local authorities are also arranging burials for those who have died, while the survivors – all Ethiopian nationals – have medical care available to them.
Yemen stays engulfed in a devastating civil struggle which has lasted more than a decade. Despite this battle – and growing instability across the wider area – migrants still cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Yemen pushed by poverty, insecurity and the growing impacts of climate change.
Since 10 September, the IOM said its Displacement Tracking Matrix has noticed more than 20,000 “movements” from Ethiopia to Djibouti.
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