A minimum of 68 African migrants have been killed and 74 others stay lacking after a ship capsized off the coast of southern Yemen on Sunday, the United Nations migration company stated.
The vessel, which was carrying 154 Ethiopian migrants, sank within the Gulf of Aden close to Abyan province, in keeping with Abdusattor Esoev, head of the Worldwide Group for Migration (IOM) in Yemen, reported the Related Press.
Esoev advised AP that the our bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore within the district of Khanfar. Fourteen others have been discovered lifeless and brought to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen’s southern coast.
Solely 12 migrants survived the shipwreck, whereas the remaining passengers have been nonetheless lacking and presumed lifeless, Esoev added.
The Abyan safety directorate, in a press release, stated a large-scale search and rescue operation was launched in response to the excessive variety of casualties. Authorities reported that quite a few our bodies have been found scattered alongside an intensive stretch of the shoreline.
Rising toll of migrant deaths at sea
The IOM famous that this incident was the most recent in a string of comparable tragedies. In March, 4 boats carrying migrants capsized off the coasts of Yemen and Djibouti, leading to two confirmed deaths and 186 folks reported lacking.
In response to a March report by the IOM, greater than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, marking a pointy drop from 97,200 in 2023. The shift was probably as a result of elevated patrolling of regional waters.
Regardless of enduring greater than a decade of civil struggle, Yemen continues to be a key route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa making an attempt to achieve wealthier Gulf Arab nations in the hunt for work.
Migrants usually depend on smugglers who transport them in overcrowded and unsafe boats throughout the Pink Sea or Gulf of Aden, usually resulting in lethal maritime disasters.
(With AP inputs)
