A minimum of 68 African migrants killed after boat capsizes off Yemen coast, U.N. says : NPR

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AP Picture/AP CAIRO — A ship capsized Sunday in waters off Yemen's coast leaving 68 African migrants lifeless and 74 others lacking, the U.N.'s migration company mentioned.

The tragedy was the most recent in a sequence of shipwrecks off Yemen which have killed lots of of African migrants fleeing battle and poverty in hopes of reaching the rich Gulf Arab international locations.

The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank within the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the Worldwide Group for Migration in Yemen advised The Related Press.

He mentioned the our bodies of 54 migrants washed ashore within the district of Khanfar, and 14 others had 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, and the remainder had been lacking and presumed lifeless, Esoev mentioned.

In an announcement, the Abyan safety directorate described a large search-and-rescue operation given the massive variety of lifeless and lacking migrants. It mentioned many lifeless our bodies had been discovered scattered throughout a large space of the shore.

Regardless of greater than a decade of civil conflict, Yemen is a significant route for migrants from East Africa and the Horn of Africa attempting to achieve the Gulf Arab international locations for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on typically harmful, overcrowded boats throughout the Crimson Sea or Gulf of Aden.

Tons of of migrants have died or gone lacking in shipwrecks off Yemen in current months, together with in March when two migrants died and 186 others had been lacking after 4 boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti, in accordance with the IOM.

Greater than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, down from 97,200 in 2023, most likely due to higher patrolling of the waters, in accordance with an IOM report in March.