A boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti in the Red Sea. At least 33 people were killed. Among these unfortunate migrants are children.
All the dead migrants are Ethiopians. British media BBC reported this information in a report on Wednesday (April 24).
At least 33 Ethiopian migrants, including an eight-year-old boy, have died after their boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti, officials told the BBC.
The United Nations Migration Agency said they were among 77 people who crossed the Red Sea from Yemen to Ethiopia.
Fishermen alerted the Coast Guard to the tragedy after witnessing the drowning of some migrants on Tuesday. Rescuers later managed to save more than 20 people. But others are missing.
Desperation and fear were evident in the faces of the survivors brought to the town of Gadoria on the coast of Djibouti after the rescue. Later they were taken to the hospital for treatment. Later the United Nations Migration Agency IOM repatriated them to Ethiopia.
Iss Eiyah, a senior official at the Djibouti Coast Guard, said those on board the sunken boat wanted to leave Yemen. Because life there was more of a struggle than in their own country.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Djibouti, Berhanu Segaye, expressed grief over the death of the migrants on social media platform X. “Illegal travel from Djibouti to Middle Eastern countries is extremely dangerous and our citizens are constantly losing their lives,” he said.
People fleeing civil war in landlocked Ethiopia often travel through Djibouti and Yemen to Saudi Arabia and beyond in search of better opportunities, the BBC says.
Some of them get stuck again in Yemen. This country on the Arabian Peninsula is also in the grip of war.
Tuesday’s boat capsizing and migrant deaths come two weeks after another boat accident in the Red Sea killed at least 38 Ethiopians.
About 1,000 people have been recorded as dead or missing in the same area of the Red Sea over the past decade, according to officials.
