The road accident injured 65 people after the truck carrying migrants and asylum seekers overturned in town of Semera, according to local authorities.

At least 22 people were killed, and 65 others were injured after a cargo truck packed with Ethiopian asylum seekers and migrants overturned on a highway.

The road accident took place in Semera, in the country’s northern Afar region, several hundred kilometres west of neighbouring Djibouti, local authorities reported on Tuesday.

“The accident happened when a truck overturned, which had crowded in citizens who were misled by illegal brokers and didn’t understand the travel route’s danger,” the Afar communications bureau wrote in a statement on Facebook.

“The regional government has been doing all the necessary life-saving operations since the accident happened, and at the moment, it is making sure that the injured people get full medical attention at Doubtee Referral Hospital. The government wishes comfort and strength to the families of the deceased, relatives and friends.”

Eastern route

Ethiopia is one of the main departure points for the so-called Eastern Route, which asylum seekers and migrants take to leave the Horn of Africa – countries that make up eastern Africa, including Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti – mainly to find work in Gulf nations.

Thousands of African asylum seekers and migrants take the route across the Red Sea, the majority of the time from Djibouti to Yemen, many in search of work as labourers or domestic workers.

Between January and September 2025, there were 890 deaths and disappearances along the Eastern Route, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported.

Last year’s figures doubled 2024’s death toll in the same period in what the United Nations organisation referred to as “the highest annual toll ever documented after 2022 [882] and 2023 [701]”.

“Tracked outgoing movements along the Eastern Route between January and September increased by 24 percent, from 283,100 in 2024 to 351,000 in 2025, mainly due to resumed data collection in Yemen, and higher and faster transit flows and shifting routes to evade controls in Djibouti and Somalia,” the IOM said.

But despite the high casualty figures, the route continues to be popular. According to the IOM, it is the “busiest and riskiest migration route in the world”.

Still, while Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Africa, with about 130 million inhabitants, and one of the fastest growing economies, more than 40 percent live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.