Fri Mar 07 15:54:08 UTC 2025: ## Two Dead, 186 Missing After Migrant Boat Capsizings off Yemen and Djibouti

**ADDIS ABABA/GENEVA** – At least two migrants are dead and 186 others are missing after four boats carrying migrants capsized off the coasts of Yemen and Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Friday. Two of the boats sank off the coast of Yemen late Thursday, leaving 181 migrants and five Yemeni crew members missing. Only two crew members were rescued. The majority of the missing migrants are believed to be Ethiopian. The IOM estimates at least 57 women were among those lost.

Meanwhile, two other boats capsized near Djibouti around the same time. While all other passengers were rescued, two bodies were recovered.

“We are working with authorities to see if we can find any survivors, but I’m afraid we may not have any,” Abdusattor Esoev, IOM chief of mission in Yemen, told AFP.

The tragic incidents highlight the perilous journey undertaken by migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa attempting to reach Gulf countries via Yemen. Despite Yemen’s ongoing civil war, the country remains a major transit point for hundreds of thousands of migrants annually, many utilizing overcrowded and unsafe smuggling vessels across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

While arrivals in Yemen increased to 97,200 in 2023, the number decreased to nearly 61,000 in 2024 due to intensified maritime patrols. The IOM reported 558 deaths along this route in 2024 alone, adding to the over 2,000 people who have disappeared in the past decade. Currently, an estimated 380,000 migrants reside in Yemen.

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