ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AFP) — Ethiopia has sentenced five people to death for human trafficking, state media reported, a first in a country where huge numbers make the perilous journey overseas, fleeing conflict and poverty.

Every year, thousands take the so-called eastern route, crossing the Red Sea from Djibouti to Yemen, hoping to reach the oil-rich Gulf states and work as labourers or domestic workers.

Many migrants undertaking the route originate from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, which was ravaged by war between 2020 and 2022.

On Monday, Yemen officials said that at least 76 people were dead and dozens missing after a boat carrying mostly Ethiopian migrants sank off its coast.

“For the first time, the death penalty has been handed down to five individuals convicted of organised human trafficking,” state media outlet the Ethiopian Herald quoted Justice Minister Belayhun Yirga as saying last Wednesday.

No details were given on the charges or nationalities of those convicted.

Ethiopia has not abolished the death penalty, but it is rarely enforced.

According to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), the last execution in the country was in 2007.