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The United Nations says 68 people have died and a boat carrying more than 70 migrants went missing after capsizing off the Yemen coast on Sunday.
It is the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen, killing hundreds of African migrants who fled poverty and conflict zones in the hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab states.
The ship carrying 154 Ethiopian immigrants sank in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen in the southern Avian region. Only 12 migrants were on board, according to the head of the International Organization for Immigration (IOM) in Abdusattur Esoev, the UN’s International Organization for Immigration (IOM).
Esoev added that the bodies of 54 migrants had been washed onshore in Khanfaal district. Fourteen people have died and were taken to the morgue at a hospital in Zinjibal, the capital of Yemen’s southern coast province.
The Avian Security Bureau says a massive search and rescue operation is ongoing given the large number of deaths and missing immigrants. He noted that a large number of bodies had already been recovered after they were found scattered across a wide area of the coast.
Yemen is the main route for the Horn of Africa, who seek to reach the Horn of Africa for work and immigration from the East despite the crippling civil war that spans more than a decade, and seeks to reach the Horn of Africa for work.
Immigrants are often employed by smugglers on dangerous, overcrowded boats, crossing the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. In recent months, the United Nations has confirmed that hundreds of African migrants have lost their lives after these dangerous trips.
According to the IOM, two people died in March, leaving four boats missing, carrying hundreds of migrants, 186 people capsed off the coast of Yemen and Djibouti.
In 2024, more than 60,000 African immigrants arrived in Yemen, down about 38% from 2023 figures to over 97,000. The IOM says the decline is attributable to larger patrols of waters by Yemen and local authorities.
Additional sources •AP
