A boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 49 dead and 140 missing, the United Nations' International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.
The boat was carrying about 260 Somalis and Ethiopians from Somalia's northern coast on the 320-kilometer journey across the Gulf of Aden when it sank off Yemen's southern coast on Monday.
The organization announced that search efforts were continuing and so far 71 people have been rescued. Among the dead were 31 women and six children, the Associated Press reports.
Yemen is the main route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf countries for work. Despite a nearly decade-long civil war in Yemen, the number of migrants arriving each year tripled from 2021 to 2023, rising from about 27 to over 90, the UN's International Organization for Migration has announced. About 380 migrants are currently in Yemen, according to the agency.
To reach Yemen, migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous and overcrowded ships across the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden. In April, at least 62 people died in two shipwrecks off the coast of Djibouti while trying to reach Yemen. The organization said at least 1 people have died or gone missing along the route, including 860 who drowned.
