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Ethiopian migrants cross the Djibouti desert on foot, heading for the Red Sea and Yemen. This report was made alongside the IOM mobile unit, which assists people exhausted by the march.
This photo story follows Ethiopian migrants in Djibouti between 2019 and 2022. Every day, women, men and children leave their country on foot. They hope to find work in Saudi Arabia and a better life, but the road leads through the desert.
Djibouti is a small country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its coast opens onto the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to Yemen. Since the 2000s, the country has become a transit point for thousands of people. In summer, they walk in temperatures close to 50 degrees, where drinking water is almost as rare as shade. The journey is mostly on foot and can take several months.
Several reasons explain these departures. In Ethiopia, youth unemployment, droughts and violence push many families to leave. Meanwhile, smugglers organise the trip in stages, from the border areas of Dikhil or Galafi to Obock in the north. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), almost 100,000 migrants passed through Djibouti between January and June 2022.
In Dikhil, in the south, exhausted migrants crowd into unfinished houses. Nearly 200 people can share two rooms without doors. Women, who are a minority, are particularly exposed to violence. Those who can no longer pay the smugglers beg for food.
Further north, towards Obock, the landscape offers only volcanic stones and no tree for shelter from the sun. That is why the IOM mobile unit rescues dehydrated migrants there, and water tanks have been placed along the corridor. This photo story shows these marches and breaks: aerial views of the desert, groups in the shade of an acacia, portraits of young migrants and of women in colourful headscarves.
This story is part of Alexander Bee’s documentary photography portfolio. You can also discover Lake Assal: the salt caravans. To buy a print or use a photo, contact me. To learn more: Djibouti on Wikipedia.
Photos © Alexander Bee – all rights reserved. Prints and licensing: contact me.
