CAIRO (AP) — A boat carrying migrants has sunk off the coast Yemen, There are at least 49 dead and 140 missing, the UN International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday.
The boat was carrying about 260 Somalis and Ethiopians from the north coast Somalia during its 200-mile (320-kilometer) journey across the Gulf of Aden when it sank off Yemen’s southern coast on Monday, the IOM said in a statement.
It said search efforts are continuing and 71 people have been rescued so far. The dead included 31 women and six children, the report said.
Yemen is one important route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf States for work. Despite almost a decade civil war in Yemen, The number of migrants arriving annually has tripled between 2021 and 2023, from about 27,000 to more than 90,000, the IOM said last month. According to the agency, there are currently approximately 380,000 migrants in Yemen.
To reach Yemen, migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. In April, at least 62 people were killed in two shipwrecks off the coast of Djibouti as they tried to reach Yemen. The IOM said at least 1,860 people died or disappeared along the route, including 480 who drowned.
Monday’s sinking “is yet another reminder of the urgent need to work together to address urgent migration challenges and ensure the safety and security of migrants along migration routes,” IOM spokesman Mohammedali Abunajela said.
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