139 people dead, including 15 children, after migrant boat capsizes off Africa:

At least 139 people, including children, have died after a boat carrying more than 300 migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti in east Africa, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.

That number only includes those buried by authorities in Djibouti. Others have been buried by the migrants themselves, but they won't be added to the official count until authorities can verify the bodies, Coissac told the AP via the phone.

Coissac said the migrants boarded the ship in the evening of Oct. 8 and that it sank very soon after, close to the shore, "mainly because it was overcrowded."

The IOM said among the bodies recovered were nine girls and six boys. More than 80 people survived the shipwreck, all Ethiopian nationals. IOM released video of the aftermath of the wreck, showing the capsized vessel and victims' clothes on the shore.

He said authorities were bringing the surviving migrants to the IOM rescue center in Obock where they receive medical assistance after swallowing sea water, and psychological support.

"They're all in a state of shock," said Coissac, who visited the area of the shipwreck Saturday. "I tried to talk to some of them but it's very difficult."

At least 84 people remained missing in one of the deadliest shipwrecks yet on the popular but perilous crossing from the Horn of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula, where many migrants seek work in rich Gulf nations.

The Geneva-based U.N. migration agency said the vessel had 305 people on board and warned that the death toll could still rise.

Tens of thousands of migrants from the Horn of Africa travel every year through Djibouti and across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait toward Gulf countries in search of safety and economic opportunities, the IOM said in its statement.

"This is a devastating loss of life," said Coissac. "This tragedy is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants along this migration corridor as they seek economic opportunities."

That's the opposite direction from the movement of the migrants who died in the shipwreck and the typical migration patterns of recent years: The tens of thousands who cross from eastern Africa toward Yemen each year have typically been looking for work in places like Saudi Arabia.

More than 900 migrants died or went missing along the route last year, according to IOM's Missing Migrants Project, while the number undertaking the journey increased by 18%.