Members of the International Organization for Migration assist survivors after a boat sank off the coast of Djibouti. (IOM/AFP pic)NAIROBI: At least 139 migrants died, including 15 children, and 84 went missing when an overcrowded boat sank while heading from Djibouti to Yemen, a UN agency said Sunday.
The vessel was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopian, when it capsized north of the Djibouti town of Obock on the night of October 8-9, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.
"Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it," Alexandre Coissac, IOM chief of mission in Djibouti, told AFP.
"This is a devastating loss of life," he said earlier in the statement.
