Dead and missing migrants in the sinking of two boats in Djibouti

January 31, 2019

Credits: El Khabar

Five people died and 130 others were missing from the sinking of two boats carrying migrants off Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

"After receiving a message from a group of residents, a gendarmerie team went to a nearby location on Tuesday afternoon and found survivors as well as the bodies of three women and two men," the group said in a statement.

According to one survivor, 130 people were on the boat but he wasn't able to determine the number of passengers in the other boat.

The boats sank about 30 minutes after leaving the town of Gudoria, northeast of the Djibouti coast, amid turbulent weather. "The Coast Guard has also been informed and they have started search and rescue operations that are continuing with two reconnaissance boats," it added.

Djibouti is located off troubled Yemen, near unstable Somalia and Ethiopia, and in recent years has become a transit point for migrants seeking to work in the Arabian Peninsula.