‘Started to sink backwards’: 139 migrants killed as boat capsizes off Djibouti

File photo: A portion of the vessel floats after it capsized while carrying about 305 people from Djibouti to Yemen, (Reuters photo) At least 139 migrants, including 15 children, have died and 84 remain missing after an overcrowded boat capsized off the coast of Djibouti while carrying more than 300 people towards Yemen, the United Nations migration agency said on Sunday.The boat was carrying 305 people, most of them Ethiopians, when it sank near Guhere, off Djibouti’s eastern coast, in the Gulf of Aden during the night of October 8-9, according to the international organisation for migration (IOM). At least 82 people survived, all of them Ethiopian nationals.“Survivors told me that the boat started to sink backwards as soon as they got in it,” Alexandre Coissac, IOM’s chief of mission in Djibouti, said, describing the incident as a “devastating loss of life”.The agency initially reported 109 deaths and 116 people missing, but revised the toll to 139 dead and 84 missing after more bodies were recovered. The official count may rise further, as some bodies buried by migrants themselves have yet to be verified by authorities, Coissac told the Associated Press.Djiboutian authorities co...