At least 48 dead, 75 missing after migrants abandoned in open sea off Djibouti

A total of 320 people, originally from Ethiopia, were on board two boats that left Yemen when they were forced by their Yemeni smugglers to disembark in the open sea and swim.

This drama makes the year 2024 “the deadliest year for maritime crossings of migrants, between the east and the Horn of Africa and Yemen”. According to a new report published Wednesday October 2 by the UN agency for migration (IOM), at least 48 people have died at sea and 75 are missing, off the coast of Djibouti. A total of 320 passengers were on board two boats from Yemen when Yemeni smugglers forced the people, all from Ethiopia, to jump into the open sea at 3 a.m. local) off the town of Obock, in Djibouti.

Among the 197 survivors is a 4-month-old baby whose mother drowned, the IOM said.

Every year, tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa, often from Ethiopia and Somalia, take the “eastern route” and cross the Red Sea, in an attempt to reach the Gulf countries. oil-rich, fleeing conflict, natural disasters and poor economic prospects at home.

Among those who make the crossing, many find themselves stranded in Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula in the grip of a civil war for nearly ten years, where they try to survive in difficult conditions. Some even prefer to turn back.

At least 1,300 migrants have died on this “eastern route” since 2014, including 337 between January and August 2024, says the IOM. In May, the UN agency indicated that, despite the dangers, the number of migrants arriving each year in Yemen had “tripled from 2021 to 2023, from around 27 000 to over 90 000″.