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More than 140 migrants believed dead as boat capsizes off Yemen Scores dead as boat carrying more than 150 people capsizes off Yemen
(about 16 hours later)
Shipwreck in Gulf of Aden with 154 Ethiopians onboard leaves only 12 survivors, with the rest missing and presumed dead, says UN agency Shipwreck in Gulf of Aden leaves only 32 survivors so far, with the rest missing and presumed dead, says UN agency
A boat has capsized off Yemen’s coast leaving 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the UN’s migration agency said. A boat has capsized off Yemen’s coast leaving 76 people dead and 74 others missing, the UN’s migration agency said.
It was the latest in a series of shipwrecks off Yemen that have killed hundreds of people fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching the wealthy Gulf Arab countries. Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden in what a senior official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) described as “one of the deadliest” shipwrecks off Yemen this year. The UN migration agency said 157 people were onboard.
The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants onboard, sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early on Sunday, the head of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Yemen said. The IOM’s Yemen head, Abdusattor Esoev, said the boat had been on a dangerous route often used by people-smugglers and was heading to Abyan governorate in southern Yemen, a frequent destination for boats smuggling African people hoping to reach the wealthy Gulf states.
Abdusattor Esoev said the bodies of 54 people washed ashore in the district of Khanfar, and 14 others were found dead and taken to a hospital morgue in Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan on Yemen’s southern coast. Some of those rescued have been transferred to the Yemeni port of Aden, near Abyan, a security official said.
Only 12 survived the shipwreck, and the rest were missing and presumed dead, Esoev said. Despite the civil war that has ravaged Yemen since 2014, the impoverished country has remained a popular transit point for irregular migration, in particular from Ethiopia, which itself has been roiled by ethnic conflict.
The Abyan security directorate described a huge search-and-rescue operation given the large number of dead and missing migrants. Its statement said many dead bodies were found scattered across a wide area of the shore. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s secretary of state, said the pope was “deeply saddened by the devastating loss of life”.
Despite more than a decade of civil war , Yemen is a major route for people from east Africa and the Horn of Africa trying to reach the Gulf Arab countries for work. Migrants are taken by smugglers on often dangerous, overcrowded boats across the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden. Each year, thousands of people brave the so-called “eastern route” from Djibouti to Yemen across the Red Sea, in the hope of eventually reaching oil-rich Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Hundreds of people have died or gone missing in shipwrecks off Yemen in recent months, including in March when two migrants died and 186 others were missing after four boats capsized off Yemen and Djibouti , according to the IOM. The IOM recorded at least 558 deaths on the Red Sea route last year, 462 of them from boat accidents.
More than 60,000 migrants arrived in Yemen in 2024, down from 97,200 in 2023, probably because of greater patrolling of the waters, according to an IOM report in March. Ayla Bonfiglio of the Mixed Migration Centre research and policy organisation told Agence France-Presse: “This route is predominantly controlled by smugglers and human-trafficking networks … Refugees and migrants have no other alternative but to hire their services.
“Migrants are well aware of the risks, but with no legal pathways and families relying on remittances from Saudi Arabia or the Emirates, many feel they have no choice.”
At least eight people died after smugglers forced 150 people off a boat in the Red Sea in June, according to the IOM.
Yemeni security forces were recovering a “significant” number of bodies, the Abyan directorate said on Sunday.
On their way to the Gulf, migrants cross the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Red Sea that is a popular route for international trade, as well as for migration and human trafficking.
Once in Yemen, the Arabian peninsula’s poorest country, migrants often face other threats to their safety.
The IOM says tens of thousands of migrants had become stranded in Yemen and suffered abuse and exploitation during their journeys.
In April, more than 60 people were killed in a strike blamed on the US that hit a migrant detention centre in Yemen, according to the Houthi rebels who control much of the country.
The wealthy Gulf monarchies host significant populations of foreign workers from south Asia and Africa.
The Abyan security directorate described a huge search-and-rescue operation given the large number of dead and missing people. Its statement said many dead bodies were found scattered across a wide area of the shore.