The death toll has risen to 38 after two migrant boats sank in heavy seas off the coast of Djibouti, the UN migration agency has said on Wednesday.
Scores of people are still feared missing from the two vessels which departed from Godaria on the Horn of Africa nation's northeast coast on Tuesday morning, but sank in heavy seas 30 minutes into the journey, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM)..
Search and rescue teams met with grim scenes of bodies strewn across the beach at Obock, a port town down the coast from Godaria.
An AFP journalist also saw bodies in the water before teams placed them in white body bags lined up on the beach.
The IOM said the boats capsized half an hour into their voyage.
IOM mission chief in Djibouti Lalini Veerassamy told AFP the death toll had reached 38.
"This tragic event demonstrates the risks that vulnerable migrants face as they innocently search for better lives," she said in a statement.
16 people were rescued following the sinkings, with one survivor telling Djiboutian authorities there were 130 people on his boat.
The number of passengers on the second vessel remains unclear, as do the nationalities of those aboard.
Located across the Bab el-Mandeb strait from Yemen and next to volatile Somalia and Ethiopia, Djibouti has in recent years become a transit point for migrants heading to seek work on the Arabian Peninsula.
Named after the town, the Obock region is unusual in that it sees people passing in both directions - boatloads of Yemeni refugees fleeing war cross vessels carrying African migrants seeking better opportunities.
