At least 28 other people are missing after a boat carrying 77 asylum seekers sank, according to the UN migration agency.
At least 16 people are dead and 28 others are missing after a boat carrying asylum seekers sank off the coast of the Horn of Africa country Djibouti, according to the UN migration agency.
The accident occurred Monday evening, about two weeks after another boat carrying mainly Ethiopian asylum seekers sank off the coast of Djibouti, killing several dozen people, on the perilous “eastern migration route”. » from Africa to the Middle East.
“Tragedy as boat capsizes off coast of Djibouti with 77 migrants on board, including children,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in an article on X on Tuesday.
“At least 28 missing. 16 dead,” the statement said, adding that the local IOM branch “is supporting local authorities in their search and rescue efforts.”
Yvonne Ndege, a spokeswoman for the agency, told the AFP news agency that the 16 deaths included children and an infant, without giving further details.
❗️ Tragedy as a boat capsizes #Djibouti coast with 77 migrants on board including children. At least 28 missing. 16 dead. @DjiboutiIOM support local authorities in their search and rescue efforts. pic.twitter.com/s4L7ASNW4o
– IOM – UN Migration News (@UNMigrationNews) April 23, 2024
The Ethiopian Ambassador to Djibouti, Berhanu Tsegaye, said on
According to him, 33 people, including a woman, survived.
Another boat carrying more than 60 people sank off the coast of Godoria on April 8, according to the IOM and the Ethiopian embassy in Djibouti.
The IOM said at the time that the bodies of 38 people, including children, had been found, while six others were missing.
The Ethiopian embassy had said the boat was carrying Ethiopians from Djibouti to war-torn Yemen.
“Eastern Road”
Every year, tens of thousands of African asylum seekers brave the “Eastern Route” across the Red Sea and Yemen to try to reach Saudi Arabia, fleeing conflict or natural disaster, or seeking better economic opportunities.
“During their journey, many face life-threatening dangers, including starvation, health risks and exploitation – at the hands of human traffickers and other criminals,” IOM said in a press release in February.
Ndege said IOM data from 2023 showed that “the number of people trying to cross is increasing”.
According to the IOM, Ethiopians make up 79 percent of the nearly 100,000 people who arrived in Yemen last year from Djibouti or Somalia, with the rest being Somalis.
The second most populous country in Africa, Ethiopia is plagued by various conflicts and several regions have suffered from severe drought in recent years.
More than 15 percent of its 120 million people depend on food aid.
In February, the IOM said that, according to its Missing Migrants Project, at least 698 people, including women and children, had died crossing the Gulf of Aden from Djibouti to Yemen last year.
