42 drowned migrants, 16 of them minors, die off the coast of Djibouti

At least 42 migrants drowned this Monday off the coast of Djibouti after the sinking of the boat in which they were traveling, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a statement.

On board the boat were about 60 people fleeing the conflict in Yemen and trying to return home to the African continent when, for unknown reasons, it suffered an accident and sank.

The IOM assures that tens of thousands of migrants, especially Ethiopians and Somalis, are "trapped in Yemen" because of the border closures derived from COVID-19 and are trying to return through this irregular route.

The spokeswoman for this body for the Horn of Africa, Ivonne Ndege, confirmed to Efe this Tuesday that among the deceased there are 16 minors, 15 men and eight women, and that three bodies have not yet been identified.

Of the 14 survivors, 11 were transferred to a hospital in the city of Djibouti, the country's capital, and three others are being treated at a migrant center in Obock.

Initially, the IOM had reported 34 deaths, but the appearance of eight more bodies in the hours following the shipwreck brings the provisional death toll to 42.

"Every year, tens of thousands of young African migrants from the region make the dangerous journey from countries like Somalia and Ethiopia through Djibouti and Yemen in search of work in the Gulf," the IOM statement said.

However, this accident occurred in the opposite direction, a route that has intensified in the last year after the border closures adopted by the covid-19 pandemic left thousands of migrants blocked in Yemen and without the possibility of continuing to countries such as Saudi Arabia, its main destination.

In March alone, 2,343 African migrants arrived in Djibouti compared to 1,900 in February, according to United Nations data.

Until 2019, the migration route connecting the Horn of Africa with the Arabian Peninsula via the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden was the most widely used in the world.

Even the war in Yemen had not been an obstacle.

That year, more than 138,000 Africans jumped into the sea in boats to reach the Arabian Peninsula, according to IOM data.

However, the restrictions adopted from March 2020 to combat covid-19 made these movements difficult and caused a change in direction: the usual departures from Djibouti and Somalia were joined by the attempts of tens of thousands of migrants to return to the continent. African in a trend that has been consolidated over the months.

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In addition to being busy, the Yemeni route is one of the most dangerous in the world because it is controlled by traffickers who do not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of passengers to the minimum of trouble.

Last March, smugglers threw some 80 people overboard from a boat traveling to Yemen after some of them complained that too many people were inside.

At least 20 migrants drowned, survivors told the IOM.

Currently, this United Nations body has identified more than 6,000 Africans in Yemen for their voluntary return and has asked African governments to facilitate this option given the difficult conditions in which they live, “generally without access to food, shelter, medical care and security ”, reported the IOM.