Ethiopia Urges Citizens to Avoid Irregular Routes After Deadly Shipwreck Off Yemen

Ethiopia Urges Citizens to Avoid Irregular Routes After Deadly Shipwreck Off Yemen
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Ethiopia’s government has called on its citizens to “avoid irregular routes” for migration, following a shipwreck off the coast of Yemen that left at least 76 people dead and dozens missing, Arab News reported. The boat, which was carrying 157 people, mostly Ethiopian migrants, capsized on Sunday in the Gulf of Aden.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the vessel was heading for the Abyan governorate in southern Yemen, a common destination for migrants hoping to reach wealthy Gulf states. Ethiopia’s permanent mission in Geneva expressed its sorrow on X, stating, “Ethiopia mourns the tragic loss of 60+ citizens in a maritime disaster off Yemen’s coast.” The mission added that authorities are “working with partners to investigate and urges citizens to avoid irregular routes.”

Thousands of Africans, many from Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, use the dangerous Red Sea route from Djibouti to Yemen each year, seeking work as laborers or domestic workers. The IOM has identified this as one of the world’s most perilous migrant routes, documenting at least 558 deaths along it last year alone. This tragedy follows a similar incident in March, when at least 180 people, most of them Ethiopians, were reported missing after a boat sank off the Yemeni coast.