Nairobi, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 24th Apr, 2024 ) At least 21 people have died in a fresh migrant boat disaster off the coast of Djibouti, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday.
It was the second fatal maritime accident in two weeks off the Horn of Africa country, which lies on the dangerous so-called eastern migration route from Africa to the Middle East.
Another vessel carrying mainly Ethiopian migrants sank in the same area on April 8, claiming the lives of several dozen people.
The International Organization for Migration’s chief of mission in Djibouti, Tanja Pacifico, told AFP in Nairobi that 21 bodies had been recovered, while 23 people were still missing.
Another 33 people survived the accident, she said late on Tuesday.
“Tragedy as boat capsizes off Djibouti coast with 77 migrants on board, including children,” IOM said in an earlier post on X, citing at least 16 dead and 28 missing.
She said that the Djibouti branch of the IOM “supports local authorities in search and rescue operations”.
Agency spokeswoman Yvonne Ndege told AFP that the victims included children and a baby, without giving further details.
Ethiopia’s ambassador to Djibouti, Berhanu Tsegaye X, said the vessel was carrying Ethiopian migrants from Yemen when it sank off Godoria in north-east Djibouti on Monday evening.
According to him, 33 people survived, including one woman.
Berhanu expressed his “deep sorrow… at the series of terrible disasters” and added: “I repeat that legal action should be taken against illegal people smugglers who threaten the lives of our citizens.”
Another vessel carrying more than 60 people sank on April 8 off the coast of Godoria, according to IOM and the Ethiopian embassy in Djibouti.
The IOM said at the time that the bodies of 38 migrants, including children, had been found, while another six people were missing.
The Ethiopian embassy said the ship was carrying Ethiopian migrants from Djibouti to war-torn Yemen.
Every year, many tens of thousands of African migrants venture on the “Eastern route” across the Red Sea and through Yemen to try to reach oil-rich Saudi Arabia, escape conflict or natural disaster, or seek better economic opportunities.
“On their journeys, many face life-threatening dangers – including starvation, health risks and exploitation – at the hands of traffickers and other criminals,” IOM said in February.
In November, 64 migrants were missing and presumed dead at sea after shipwreck off the coast of Yemen, the agency said.
Ndege said IOM data from 2023 showed that “the number of people trying to cross is increasing”.
According to the agency, Ethiopians make up 79 percent of the roughly 100,000 migrants who came to Yemen from Djibouti or Somalia last year, the rest being Somalis.
Africa’s second most populous country, Ethiopia, is plagued by various conflicts and several regions have been plagued by severe droughts in recent years.
More than 15 percent of its 120 million people depend on food aid.
In February, the IOM said that at least 698 people, including women and children, had died crossing the Gulf of Aden from Djibouti to Yemen last year, according to its Missing Migrants Project.
In August, Human Rights Watch accused Saudi border guards of killing “at least hundreds” of Ethiopians trying to enter the Gulf kingdom from Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023, in some cases using explosive weapons.
Riyadh dismissed the group’s findings as “baseless and not based on reliable sources”.
