8 migrants dead, 12 missing off Djibouti coast: IOM
Eight migrants died and 12 were missing after smugglers forced them off a boat near Djibouti, a spokeswoman for the International Organisation of Migration told AFP Sunday.
The migrants were all thought to be Ethiopians time for the Horn of Africa after failing woefully to reach Saudi Arabia via Yemen, because of Covid-19 border closures.
“At least 8 migrants have died and 12 are missing at sea after being forced off a boat by smugglers off the coast of Djibouti, Horn of Africa,” IOM spokeswoman Yvonne Ndege said.
“According to eyewitness survivors, assisted by IOM, three smugglers violently forced the teenagers and women off the vessel while still at sea.
“Smugglers are recognized to exploit migrants upon this route in this way, many spending or their families having to pay large sums to facilitate travel.”
Ndege said there have been 34 up to speed, and the boat was headed to the city of Obock, a significant transit point in Djibouti for a large number of African migrants in the region trying to attain the Gulf.
At least 2,000 migrants have arrived in Djibouti from Yemen in the last three weeks, most trying to return home to Ethiopia, Somalia, and other nations in east Africa and the Horn, in line with the IOM.
The US agency has been providing emergency health care, food, water, tents and counselling to the migrants.
“This tragedy is a wake-you-up call. A huge selection of migrants are leaving Yemen everyday trying to attain Djibouti. Risking their lives, facing exploitation from people smugglers, and in this situation, very tragically, death and injury,” Ndege said.
In January 2019 at least 58 migrants - mostly Ethiopians - drowned after two vessels carrying them from Djibouti to Yemen sank.
The Bab el-Mandeb strait which separates Djibouti from Yemen is unusual for the reason that it sees migrants and refugees passing in both directions - boatloads of Yemenis fleeing to Africa to flee war, while some head in the contrary direction carrying African migrants to the Arabian Peninsula in search of better opportunities.
