New Delhi, March 28 -- A boat packed with migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti on the way to Yemen this week, the U.N. migration agency said Friday. At least nine people died and another 45 are missing after the shipwreck.

The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that have over the past few years killed several thousand African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching wealthy Gulf Arab countries.

The boat had left from the Djibouti port town of Obock with more than 300 people were on board and was trying to cross the Bab el-Mandeb Strait when it went down on Tuesday, the International Organization for Migration said.

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait and t...