Starvation and drowning on the deadly Horn of Africa migrant route

On a vast, sun-scorched plain in Djibouti, dozens of men made the days-long trek home after their plan failed to cross one of the world’s deadliest migration routes from Africa to the Gulf. Their faces drawn, their bodies emaciated, some had not eaten in days. A few withered acacia trees offer the only occasional shade in Djibouti’s April “winter”, when temperatures still hit 35C. Jemal Ibrahim Hassan hoped to find work in one of the wealthy Gulf monarchies by travelling from Djibouti on the Horn of Africa to Yemen across the narrow but deadly Bab-el-Mandab Strait.