ADDIS ABABA – When 19-year-old Nigus Yosef told his parents he was going to leave home in Ethiopia’s Tigray region and try to get to Saudi Arabia, they begged him not to go.

Two of their children had already made the crossing, via the Gulf of Aden and then war-torn Yemen. Yosef’s brother is now in jail in Yemen for entering that country illegally. His sister made it to Saudi Arabia, also illegally, which means it will be difficult for her to leave.

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On August 3, 2025, Yosef and five friends from his town of Adi Qeyih boarded a boat bound for Yemen. That night, it capsized. Only 56 people of the nearly 200 people on board survived . Yosef was not one of them.

“His parents are in deep shock and grief,” his uncle, Redae Barhe, said in a telephone interview. “They can’

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