Increasing numbers of Tigrayans are risking their lives at sea in attempts to reach Yemen

In its March report, the International Organisation for Migration recorded more than 446,000 movements (which refer to any identified travel along this route, meaning that an individual can be counted twice, both when departing and when returning) on this axis in 2024, a 13% increase over the previous year.

Source: Le Monde

On August 3, at least 90 migrants died when their boat sank in the Gulf of Aden. All of them hailed from Ethiopia’s Tigray region, which has been plagued by ongoing political instability after two years of civil war.

By Marlène Panara (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, correspondent)Published today at 12:18 am (Paris) 

It was the deadliest boat accident on the migration path known as the “Eastern Route” in the past five years. On Sunday, August 3, at least 90 people drowned off the coast of Yemen, near the town of Shoqra. According to Abdusattor Esoev, the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Chief of Mission in Yemen, 154 people were aboard a wooden boat when it capsized in the Gulf of Aden. The boat was overloaded and sailing in rough seas, and though 12 migrants – all men – survived, around 50 other people were still missing. All of them hailed from Ethiopia.

On Monday, Ethiopia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed “deep sorrow” and conveyed its condolences to the victims’ families, in a statement reported by the state-backed Fana Media Corporation. The ministry also urged Ethiopian citizens to “avoid irregular migration routes” and to “protect themselves from human traffickers, who exploit vulnerable individuals and expose them to life-threatening risks.”

Sinkings along this route, one of the “one of the world’s most dangerous migration corridors,” according to the IOM, are not uncommon. In March, four migrant boats sank in the area, resulting in a grim toll of 180 missing individuals. Moreover, these figures do not include other damage they can suffer at sea: On Wednesday, at least seven Ethiopians died from thirst and hunger, and several others went missing after a boat traveling from Somalia to Yemen broke down in the open sea.

Migrant movements up 13 % over the year

“Over the past 10 years, since the start of the war in Yemen, crossings on this route have increased significantly. After the war began, there was much less surveillance at sea and administrative uncertainty surrounding migration management. This led to a boom in the smuggling business,” said Marina de Regt, an anthropologist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a specialist in migration between the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

Every year, tens of thousands of Ethiopian, Somalian and Eritrean nationals seeking to reach the wealthy Gulf states try to cross over to Yemen. In its March report, the IOM recorded more than 446,000 movements (which refer to any identified travel along this route, meaning that an individual can be counted twice, both when departing and when returning) on this axis in 2024, a 13% increase over the previous year.

While migrant departures have increased, the number of arrivals on Yemeni soil has, however, decreased. Since the start of the year, just over 60,000 migrants have arrived in Yemen after crossing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. An increase in maritime interceptions by Yemeni and Djiboutian coast guards was one of the explanations the IOM cited for the figure.

The vast majority of migrants taking this route were from Ethiopia. In 2024, they accounted for 96% of those identified by the IOM. From Ethiopia, migrants travel to one of three main departure points on the coast: one in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland; another in Djibouti; and a third in Puntland, an autonomous region of Somalia. They then attempt to cross the sea and head to Yemen.

The migrants on the boat that sank on Sunday were all “from Raya, in the southern Tigray zone,” a region in northern Ethiopia, said Yirga Alemu, an independent sociology researcher. Some of the bodies, images of which were shared around on social media platforms, wore “jewelry and clothing typical of the region,” such as the “sherot,” a type of fabric with geometric designs, he added.

Lack of economic opportunity

According to the IOM, movements from Tigray accounted for a third of all departures in 2024. The region, which was devastated by two years of war from November 2020 to November 2022, has been unable to retain its population.

“Migration has always been common among young people in the region. But in recent years, it has exploded,” said Alemu. This is mainly due to a lack of economic opportunity: “Since the war, it has become very difficult for young people to find work, and even university graduates are unemployed. For young people in rural areas, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to live solely on the resources of the family farm. Some young farmers cannot even afford a pack of cigarettes or a pair of shoes. For them, leaving is the only option.”

Political instability has also contributed to the exodus of many Tigrayans. For several months, the risk of a new conflict has loomed over the region, due to internal tensions within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Since the TPLF signed the Pretoria Agreement peace treaty in November 2022, an intense rivalry has erupted between two factions: one led by Getachew Reda, who was appointed by federal authorities to head an interim administration in Tigray in March 2023, and then became Ethiopia’s East African affairs minister advisor in April; and the other by Debretsion Gebremichael, who has led the TPLF since he was elected, in 2017.

At the end of July, tensions escalated after TPLF-aligned forces deployed in southern Tigray, a territory controlled by officials loyal to Reda’s faction. The area’s administrator, Haftu Kiros, was ousted, sparking a wave of public protests. According to Alemu, these events “finally convinced young Tigrayans to find other options and to leave. Today, it is very easy to find people who can arrange the crossing.” In Tigray, “you can find a smuggler just by walking down the street,” the researcher continued: “They will ask you for between 50,000 and 100,000 birrs [between €310 and €620] to take you to Yemen.”

Many will never make it to their destination. Since the start of the year, the IOM has recorded more than 350 deaths and disappearances on the “Eastern Route” (558 in 2024). Every year, many boats loaded with would-be migrants vanish without a trace in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Marlène Panara (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, correspondent)